Camp Rocket (A Pokemon Fanfic)
by Tecy
Summary: Tecy expected Camp Royale to be any normal, boring summer camp. The directors have other ideas, and bring all the campers into the Pokemon World! Tecy and Kali now have to evade Team Rocket as they try to go on a Pokemon Journey, but can they? Will Russell catch up to them or will they escape? Find out in this fanfiction that takes you through ALL the Pokemon Regions.
1. Chapter 1- Camp Royale

The bus bounced along the gravel road, I watched as trees passed by, almost giving me the sensation that they were moving and not me. The bus hit a pothole in the road and everyone on the bus was thrown out of their seats for a moment. I bit my tongue, landing back in my seat. I groaned as the pain tingled still; so far it was going to be a _wonderful_ week at camp.

After a number more of potholes and sharp turns on the dirt road, a single tent poked its way through the branches of the fir trees. The bus came to a stop in the middle of a large parking lot. The other kids on the bus managed to pack their way out of the bus before I did, and all I could do was patiently wait until everyone else was out of the aisle before I could leave. I muttered a "see ya" to the driver as I hopped down the steps and onto the dusty ground.

Three camp directors greeted us and two others took our bags out of the bus. One was a tall, lanky man with shaggy red hair, with some tied into a small ponytail on top of his head, he spoke first saying, "Welcome to Camp Royale. Now how many of you brought tents?" Almost every hand went up. "Well, you won't need them. You'll be staying in caves." Groans and gasps (and even one "cool") erupted from his audience. The director waited until we settled down to continue, and as he did so, he motioned to a side table where curious drills were laid out. "The first task you will have here is to create your own cave with these Digger Drills." He picked one up to show us what they looked like. It was a small hand-held device with a screen on one side and a trigger on the other, the top was a drill. "All you have to do is map out what you want your cave to be shaped." He turned the screen on, and it showed different options of rooms, "Hold it up to a cliff side." He motioned to a very long cliff side to the north of the lot, "And press the trigger. Any questions?"

A girl raised her hand, "How can that little thing drill a cave?"

"Good question" He paused momentarily "that I don't have an answer to. All I know- it does." He said then waited for another question. There weren't any, so the camp leader handed each of us a digger drill and told us to not set the drills off anywhere near another. I took mine and felt the drill, it was sharp, but not sharp enough to cut my finger. I found a spot far away from anyone else, and loud drilling noises erupted from where the other campers were. Someone screamed. I deemed it as they were surprised at the drill, and thought nothing of it.

I turned the drill so the screen faced me and I turned it on. A panel of boxes popped up, each one looked like a room. I scanned through each of them, noting which ones looked most appealing, then went back and pressed one. The screen asked, "Are you sure?" I hit "Yes" then the drill instructed me to pull the trigger at the wall. I did so, and the drill spun and spun and launched itself at the wall and quickly drilled its way inside. I couldn't see what was going on inside, but the loud noises of drilling through stone told the tale. I could barely hear myself think from the volume of the drill, but it was over in a minute or so. The drill poked itself out of the wall, about grass level, and carved upward, curved about a foot above me, then came back down to grass level. The stone carved out fell inwards and opened to the room that I chose. I looked around, and tried to touch the ceiling- I only could if I jumped. The room was about the size of a normal bedroom, but it had walls jutting out to segment the one room into three. A leader poked her head into my cave, she was fairly tall but stout and she had short-cropped gold hair with brown strands. She motioned for me to get closer and when I did so, she handed me a device that looked like a laptop but had a gigantic hole in the side that I could thrust my hand into.

"This will let you decorate your room." She said, "Just set it on the ground somewhere and turn it on."

"Are you going to show me how to use it?"

The leader shook her head, "Once it's on it's very self-explanatory." She started to leave but then added, "We'll be introducing everyone in about ten minutes. So meet over by the fire pit. It's at the closest edge of the lot." Then she walked away.

I set the laptop down on the floor in the area I decided I was going to sleep. The laptop turned on and the screen had several options. "Decorate" "Put away" "Pack up" and "Shut down". I clicked on "Decorate", the screen showed a variety of chairs, tables, beds (with blankets and pillows), sofas, and even a fridge and sink. I chose a chair, then a grid of my room opened up. I pressed in one box where to put the chair. A circular device shot out of the computer to the spot and the chair came out of it. The device shot back into the computer. "... Cool" I muttered, then proceeded to decorate more. The device had to come back to the laptop before I could choose another piece of furniture.

When I finished, I shut the laptop down and tried to pick it up, but it was stuck to the floor. I tried again, harder, but it was stuck solid. "Weird..." I said but left it alone, I walked out of the opening and the stone door on the floor closed behind me, and became a stone door with a hinge and doorknob. "This is really weird." I noted, but shrugged, "Oh well." I hurried over to where the other kids and the leaders were gathered.

"Okay, now that we're all here, I'll start." Said the lanky man, "I'm Russell."

"Mary." Said the woman who gave me the laptop.

"Name's Lawrence." The third said, he was short and fat with long brown hair that was tied behind his head in a ponytail. He wore a bandanna around his neck and looked a lot like a biker.

Russell motioned to the other two directors, "Mary is the leader for the girls, Lawrence is the leader for the boys. I'm the guy you come to if you have any questions or problems." Russell put his hands in his pockets, "I don't think any of you noticed, but there was a portal on the road here. These devices we've shown you, you've never seen or heard of before, I'm sure. And I'll show you another one very soon, but you _should_ have seen it before." Russell squatted down and said, "In this camp, you will learn and see and find things that you never thought existed. You will learn battle strategy, how to survive in these woods, and also how to make friends with the creatures in this area." He pulled out a small red and white ball with a black stripe through the center and a button on the stripe. "Now, who can tell me what this is?"

My hand shot up. Russell motioned to me, "That's a Pokeball." I said.

Russell nodded, "And..?"

"And it's used for catching pokemon." I added.

He smiled, "Very good." He pressed the button on the pokeball and a small yellow creature with red cheeks and a lightning-bolt shaped tail popped out. Some kids gasped, some groaned (and I shouted "sweet"). "Now, who can tell me what this critter is called?"

"Pikachu!" It shouted.

Russell chuckled, "It should be pretty easy, he just said his name."

"Pikachu" we said in a monotone unison./p

Russell pressed the pokeball button once again, a yellow light surrounded pikachu and brought it back inside. The pokeball closed and Russell shoved it into his pocket once more. "I'm sure you're now aware that this camp is, in fact, a Trainer's camp." He smiled, "But, for now, we'll just start with the basics. There are over 700 kinds of pokemon in the world, but these woods only home maybe a hundred. Most of the pokemon here will be grass type, or, they will have grass abilities and attacks. Some will be poison, normal, fighting, flying, bug, rock, and you might luck out with a water type. Who here is confused?" A couple hands showed, "Okay. Each pokemon has a type, some have two. There are eighteen types since Kalos: Fire, Water, Grass, Poison, Bug, Dark, Dragon, Fairy, Flying, Fighting, Rock, Ground, Psychic, Ghost, Steel, Ice, Electric, and Normal." Russell had to think hard about the last few, continuing on, "Some pokemon types are stronger against some and weaker against others. Can anyone guess what's strong against Fire?" I raised my hand. Russell nodded to me and I told him it was Water, ground, rock and dragon. Russell nodded then asked if I knew about pokemon. I nodded. Russell's eyebrows furrowed, he then asked, "What are the status conditions?"

"Sleep, poison, paralyze, burn, frozen. And also the less important but annoying confusion and infatuation."

"And how do you heal these conditions?"

"With medicine and berries. Pecha and Antidotes heal poison, Cheri and Paralyze Heal heal paralyzed pokemon, Chesto and Awakenings heal sleep, burn heals and Rawst berries heal burns, and Ice heals and Aspear heal frozen. Persim berries heal confusion, and I don't think there's a berry that heals infatuation." I explained, "But I know that playing a red flute can heal infatuation and..." Russell cut me off there.

"Well then, I guess this camp won't do too much for you. I'm sure if I gave you a pokeball you could just go right up to anything and catch it." I could've sworn that there was malice behind his voice. Maybe he thought I was wasting his time? I dunno.

"Well, only if the pokemon doesn't escape. Healthy pokemon aren't caught easily." I replied, to which Russell frowned. Maybe that comment was unnecessary...

Russell ignored me after that, and he continued to teach the other kids about pokemon and their abilities and what-not that I already knew from the Pokemon games. I sat back and ignored everything, since I already knew it. The other kids glanced at me whenever Russell asked a question, and occasionally I would whisper the answer, but otherwise, I said nothing.

I was the first one to get up when the lesson ended, and Mary came up to me and asked, "Do you think you're ready for a pokemon today?" I nodded in response and she led me into the woods. She handed me five pokeballs and said, "You know that healthy pokemon aren't always easy to catch, but there are ways to make it easier. If you become friendly with the pokemon before trying to catch it, then the pokemon may be more willing to be caught." Mary patted me on the back and warned, "Don't stray too far from the path." Then she walked away.

**(A/N Tecy: Hehe, FORGOT TO MENTION that this story is TRIPLE posted. You can find it here, WattPad, and DeviantArt. The story on WattPad, however, is updated more frequently.**

**Moving on, First chapter of the first part of Camp Rocket and everything seems pretty peaceful... For now.**

**Mary being irresponsible and letting a teenager w/out knowledge of the area on her own. *clicks tongue* Shaaaaaame.)**


	2. Chapter 2- Charmander

"Irresponsible." I muttered resentfully as I made my way through the underbrush, "I may be seventeen and know a lot about pokemon, but I'm still a minor."

"Hold on to the bugger!" Someone shouted ahead of me.

"I'm trying!" Another shouted back, "It's hard to carry it when it thrashes around!"

I hurried after the noise, coming into a clearing and found two men wearing black uniforms with a red "R" on the chest of each of their shirts. One was struggling behind the other, trying to hold onto a small orange lizard with a flame on the end of its tail.

"Then knock the stupid thing out!" The first, growing rather impatient, shouted. The other frowned and held out his hands, showing how full they were trying to keep the Charmander under control. The first man walked up to the struggling Charmander and knocked it on the head. The pokemon went limp and the second thanked the first.

"Hey!" I shouted and made my presence known. "Leave that pokemon alone!"

"Oh, great. A witness." The first said in an exasperated tone. He looked at me and said. "I guess we just have to battle this out."

"Without pokemon." I said. The man seemed surprised. "I... I'm not actually a trainer... yet." I explained.

The man smiled wickedly. "You think I'd battle someone myself?"

"Do you think you'd lose?" I asked and held my arms wide. "I'm just a girl." Who is also a martial artist, but I wouldn't tell them _that_.

The man holding the pokemon muttered to the other something. The first man shouted. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"_I_ think you're weak." I said.

"I wasn't talking to- wait... Weak?" The man shouted at me.

I smirked and turned away. "You're scared to fight a girl half your age. You're weak."

"I'm not _that_ old." He grumbled. "Fine. But you brought this upon yourself!" He cracked his knuckles and came at me with a punch. He was too far though and I didn't even have to move. He tried again, this time a hook punch. I ducked down and hit him with a thrust punch to the groin. The man stumbled back and doubled over. His groan became a growl. "I'll kill you, kid!" He then came after me again, trying to punch me in the face with a (poor) front-two-knuckle punch. Before he made it to me, I kicked out and hit him square in the chest. Had this been sparring, he would have stopped. And I expected him to, but he kept coming. His attacks became easier to see (and to block) and much tenser. He moved in such wide arcs that it seemed like I was sparring someone going at 1/4 speed, either that or I was too used to sparring with my brother; his quarter speed is my half speed. I blocked and dodged a few of his attacks until I found a perfect opening. I came in with three jabs to the nose and a thrust punch to the solar plexus. He stumbled back and held his bleeding nose.

"Had enough?" I taunted, flipping my waist-long chestnut brown hair off my shoulder. "Or do you still think you can beat me?"

"Who are you?" The man holding the limp charmander asked.

"I'm no one you should trifle with. That is all you ever need know." I smiled, quoting the_ Princess Bride._

He gave me a confused look. I was about to explain, but the man I thought I finished fighting came in with a punch to my ear. My head was ringing, but I've been hit there before by my brother enough times that it didn't stop me from fighting. _Who knew that brat could be helpful?_ I came back at him with a kick. He grabbed my leg and held it up, as my brother often did when I kicked out at him. I chambered my leg and it came out of his grasp, he looked down at his hand and I kicked out with a heel-thrust kick to his knee. He fell, but was far from out. The Rocket grunt grabbed a long stick near him and came with it at me over head. I shot under his arm as he swung, grabbing the shirt on his back and came up with three rising knees to his groin. After the third I let him go and I stepped off to the side, facing him. He fell to his knees, growling and repeating his threat.

I shrugged. "If that's the case, get up and fight."

"Aren't you even tired?" The man holding the charmander asked.

I kept my attention on the man kneeling, "Not really. I've done this before." That wasn't _quite_ true, on either case, but I felt like it made me more intimidating.

"You know martial arts, don't you?"

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner, what do we have for him, Johnny?" I asked sarcastically, enjoying my advantage.

The man on the ground got up and held his hands up in en garde. "Now I mean business, kid."

"Should have done that earlier." I retorted, also taking an en garde stance. From the corner of my eye, I could see Charmander regaining consciousness. The man holding him also noticed and began to mumble incoherently, which caused the first man to lower his guard and look over at him.

"What is it now?"

"Charmander's waking up."

"Then make him fall asleep aga-."

I hit the man I was fighting with a leopard strike to the neck; he fell down unconscious. "Like that?" I asked the unconscious man on the ground then looked up at the man holding the charmander. "You have three options. One. You could put the charmander down and fight me. Two. You could run off without the charmander. Three. You could run off with the charmander and I would catch up to you and beat the shiitake mushrooms out of you." I told him, counting the options on my fingers.

The man laughed nervously, dropped the charmander and ran off, shouting, "Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

I smirked, "They actually _use_ that phrase? Hah. That's funny." A glimpse of movement brought my attention down to the ground. Charmander was looking at me from a short distance, seemingly unsure of what to make of me. I knelt down, keeping myself as straight as I could and smiled. "Hey little guy. Are you OK?" The little lizard pokemon, seeing I was friendly, rubbed his head a little, probably where the man hit him. "He hit you pretty hard, didn't he?" Charmander nodded. I leaned over and kissed the spot that Charmander was previously rubbing. I came back up and smiled, "All better?" The little lizard blushed so deeply that his whole body seemed scarlet, well, more so. I giggled. "I'll take that as a 'yes'." Then I winked "Unless you want another one." Charmander held up his little hands in defense. I laughed good naturedly. "I'm just teasing you." The pokeballs in my pocket shook a little, reminding me that they were there. I took one out and held it to charmander. "Do you want to be my pokemon?" The little lizard pokemon looked at me then at the ball. He then smiled and poked the button. The ball shook once... twice... three times... then _click_ed. I took the pokeball and a symbol of a flame appeared right above the button. Pressing the button, charmander came back out, still smiling. "Well now, Charmander, I guess I could give you a name..."

"Nah, Charmander's fine with me." He smiled. My eyes widened and I managed to stifle a squeak of surprise.

"You talk..?" I asked a little freaked out.

"There's a mental bond between a pokemon and its trainer, so yes and no. I can't talk to other humans, just to you." Charmander explained.

"Oh-kaaaaaaay. That makes sense." _not._ The man I knocked out began to groan. "Uh... We should go before he wakes up."

"Yeah. Good idea." Charmander nodded. I let him climb onto my shoulder before running back to camp.

Charmander looked around my cave and remarked, "How did you find a cave so well carved out?"

"Well... I didn't find it, _per se_. There's an object called a digger drill that can cut out rooms like this in stone." I explained.

"Seriously? That's awesome!" Charmander smiled. "So, where do I sleep?"

I looked at my bed, "I guess you could sleep with me. Neither of us take up that much space."

"You're bed's a little high up." Charmander commented and tried to climb up into it. He managed to, after a few tries and lots of struggling. "Is there a way that I can get up here easier?"

I glanced over at the PC on the floor, getting a silent idea. "Actually, there is." I sat down in front of it and turned it on. The familiar screen opened up. I clicked on "Decorate" and "Chairs". I chose one that kinda matched the bed and set it at its back, facing away from it. The little disc came out of the computer. Charmander was following the disc with his eyes, a confused look on his face. The fire lizard fell backwards in surprise when the chair popped out. The disc came back to the PC completely unnoticed by him. I chuckled at the little lizard as he tried to make words of what just happened.

"How did that chair pop out of that little... whatever it was?!"

"Honestly, no clue. It just does, and I don't ask questions." I shrugged. "Though it does make decorating this place much easier."

"Yeah... I can tell." Charmander muttered. He climbed over the back of the chair and hopped onto the cushion then down to the floor. "Getting down is easy enough." He then climbed onto the cushion then navigated his way onto the bed, onto which he sat down on the edge closest to me. "It works pretty well."

"Great." I smiled then looked away. "Now what do you want to do?"

Charmander shrugged. "I dunno."

"Hmm... well, I brought a couple games." I offered. Charmander climbed off of the bed as I walked over to my bags in the middle of the floor. I took my heavy duffle bag into the corner and zipped it open. I found a deck of playing cards and for the rest of the day I was teaching Charmander go fish, kings in the corner, trash, and solitaire. We played a few rounds of each game until one of us got bored of it. Mary soon came around calling curfew, so charmander climbed into bed and fell asleep while I got into my pajamas: a T-shirt and yellow with blue star footies. I daydreamed a bit, wandering around the room for a half hour or so before climbing into bed. It took me a long while to fall asleep (per the norm) but once I did, I fell into a deep sleep.

**(A/N Tecy: Word of advice to those who don't take self-defense classes: Take them. Not only is it good in case you DO get attacked, but it also makes writing fight scenes seem more authentic.**

**And, yes, I do take Karate. This is not me giving myself special abilities. I really do know how to fight.) **


	3. Chapter 3- Kali

Something stirred in the cave the next morning. I opened one eye, seeing nothing, fell back asleep if only for a moment before Charmander woke up. "Good morning, Tecy!"

"Morning, Charmander." I yawned.

"Come on, get up! I'm hungry!" The little pokemon whined, shaking my shoulder.

"Fine, fine." I muttered and got up out of bed. I walked over to the small kitchen I designed. An all-too familiar voice piped up from behind me and two other human arms surrounded me as she squealed.

"Good morning Tec-chan!"

"Kali?" I asked turning around, "What are you doing here?" My friend, Kali, was eighteen years old with short brown hair, glasses covered her hazel green/blue eyes. She wore black low-top converse, gym shorts, and a white T-shirt with Edward and Alphonse Elric on it. Al is holding a kitten. The words "Full Metal Alchemist" was written on it.

"Well, I missed you, Tecy." Kali pouted.

"Okay then. _How_ did you get here?"

"Through the MAGIC of television!" She smiled waving her arms in a rainbow, quoting _Codement_. I gave her a knowing look then she added. "Actually, I came by bus. They drive CRAZY."

"Speaking of CRAZY" Charmander spoke up, mocking how Kali said 'crazy'. "Is she always like this?"

"Oh, right. Kali, this is Charmander" I motioned to the pokemon. "Charmander, Kali. And yes, she is always this crazy."

"OH. EM. GEE. HE'S ADORABLE!" Kali cooed and ran over to the lizard pokemon.

"NO HUGS!" Charmander cried, but it was too late. My crazy friend already held him in her grasp, clutching him close to her chest. Charmander gave me a pathetic look. I couldn't help but chuckle, still, I took out Charmander's pokeball and brought him back into it.

Kali turned around and said, lower lip quivering, "Tecy! I was holding him!"

"Don't look at me like that." I protested with a frown. I _hate_ it when she does that, especially she acts like she's three or four years old when she does it. "Charmander's really shy around girls." Giggling, I added, "You should see him when he gets kissed. He's like Romano getting kissed by Belgium."

"Awwwwww!" Kali squealed, "That's so cute! I totally want to see that!" she added with a wicked glint in her eye. With that, I slowly pulled Charmander's pokeball closer to my backside- and away from my crazy friend. Kali giggled then said. "You know what? I need a pokemanz!"

"But you just got here." I protested. "Don't you want to get settled in first?"

"Nope!"

I sighed, _Sparatic at the best of times and there is no talking her out of anything_, "Fine. Let's get this over with." I grabbed the remaining pokeballs and started to walk out of the cave.

"Uh, Tec-chan? Shouldn't you change first?" Kali asked, referring to me still in my pajamas.

"Pffff, technicalities." I said and waved the notion away, yet came back and changed into my white tennis shoes with purple shoelaces, jean capris that I drew hearts on, and a fitted purple T-shirt. I took a moment to examine myself in the mirror, same waist long brown hair, blue eyes, pasty white skin with a bunch of freckles on my cheeks and a tired look to match how I felt. Kali insisted on braiding my hair into pigtails, of which my hair seemed to struggle against. Charmander didn't want to come out of his pokeball, in fear of my crazy friend. Not like I could blame him, it took me a while to get used to her when we first met. Kali and I walked outside the cave towards the forest when I asked Kali. "So, what kind of pokemon did you have in mind?"

"Snorlax."

"Snorlax?" I repeated, "You sure?" Snorlax, though it is far from a bad pokemon, was _not_ my first choice of a starter.

"Yep! I will not accept any other pokeman as my starter." Kali nodded definitely.

I pulled out and handed Kali a pokeball. "You're going to need this." I walked a couple steps into the forest, hearing no other footprints behind me I looked back and my expression fell flat. Kali was staring at the pokeball in admiration and affection. "Kali... _Ka-li._.." I called over to her.

"It's so... beautiful..."

"It's been in my pocket since yesterday." I replied in a sardonic tone, "Now, come on. Snorlax isn't going to wait... Sleep, maybe, but not wait." I waited for Kali to hurry up and stop admiring the pokeball before continuing through the woods. One thing everyone may not know about me is that I am _not_ a 'morning person'. 

Kali and I walked along the road for over an hour looking for a Snorlax. My stomach hurt and growled, but Kali searched behind every nook and cranny of each bush as if a huge 300 pound pokemon was behind it. I rolled my eyes at her antics and often almost shouted "Do you expect a Snorlax to be hiding under a pebble smaller than Edward Elric?" Eventually I looked ahead and saw an incredibly large bear laid out in front of the road. I glanced over at Kali, who was looking around a rock that looked vaguely like the FairyTail symbol. "Kali" I called out.

"What?" She asked, not looking away from the rock.

"There's something here you may want to see." I replied, looking back over to the snorlax. Kali looked over at me. I motioned to the pokemon. She held her arms to her shoulders and squealed loudly, then ran over to the sleeping pokemon and fell on top of it.

"Ohmygoshhe'ssocuteandcuddlyandfluffyandImightjustdie" she gasped loudly then continued "byalloftheexceitementandjusthowcuteandfluffySnorlaxis!"

Charmander finally dared to come out of his pokeball. "Is it safe?" He asked, hiding behind my neck.

"For you, yes. For Snorlax... Well, he'll find out when he wakes up."

"I feel sorry for him..." Charmander commented as Kali continued ranting.

"Yeah, but he'll probably sleep through most of everything." I shrugged.

Kali got up suddenly and threw the pokeball at Snorlax. It shook twice then popped back out and broke the pokeball. Kali looked over at me with a pitiful look. I dug into my pocket for another pokeball and tossed it over to her. She immediately threw it at the pokemon. It shook once... twice... thrice... and_ click_. Snorlax was caught. Kali took a few minutes to geek out about catching a snorlax. I stood about ten feet away and waited until she finished. "Kali. We need to head back now."

"Okay!" She nodded and mocked a march past me. She giggled uncontrollably, and I laughed a little in good nature.

"Doesn't she get on your nerves sometimes?" Charmander asked.

"Only when she starts singing 'Amor de mi Alma' to me." I replied. Upon hearing the name of the oh-so-sappy spanish song, Kali slowed down and started singing it to me. I closed my eyes and shook my head. "DON'T LOOK AT ME WHEN YOU SING THAT!"

"Oh, but you know you like it."

"NO. I. DON'T." I said, covering my ears. Charmander gave Kali a weird look. "Charmander, if you don't know what it means, then don't ask."

"The mental connection between us tells me what it means." Charmander explained. "I'm just not sure if you're friend's..."

"We're both straight." I reassured him, "Although SOME of us like to pretend we're not." I glanced over at Kali when I said 'some'. She giggled and claimed "guilty". It wasn't before long that my stomach began to growl loudly. "Ugh... We really should have grabbed breakfast before leaving."

"Well, you wanted to get me my pokemon before eating breakfast."

"I know..." I heaved a long sigh, "Well, we're not getting any closer to home by complaining."

Kali led the way from there, and I was barely trudging along and I was sure the campsite was farther away than usual. However, as we came closer to the cliffside the smell of breakfast wafted from the other's caves, giving me a jump-start. I ran past Kali unexpectedly back to the cave. Kali shouted something in protest, and Charmander almost fell off my shoulder from the sudden movement. "Hey! Be careful, I'm still up here you know." He yelled.

"Sorry, I'm just really, _really_ hungry." I laughed and let air in and out of my lungs. Kali ran up and gave me her puppy-dog eyes and quivering lip.

"How could you leave me behind, Tec-chan?"

"Don't give me that look. And I'm starving." I replied, opening the door to the cave. Charmander jumped off my shoulder and onto the table as I walked quickly into the kitchen. Kali peeked into the freezer.

"Oooh! Breakfast sausage!" She cooed, pulling out a bag of frozen sausage.

"That sounds really good right now." I said, taking the bag from her and opening it. I looked around my counters and muttered, "Do we have a frying pan?" Kali giggled at that. I frowned and looked up at her. "I'm not going to hit anyone over the head with it."

"Awww" She giggled. "I'm sure there's someone here you want to hit with it."

"The only human _here_ I know is you." I replied. Though there are times when I do want to hit her with a frying pan. Wouldn't say that aloud though. Searching through the cupboards and counters proved to be in vain. There wasn't any sort of pot or pan or, well, any cooking utensils. "That's a problem..." I muttered.

"Did you bring a frying pan?" Kali asked.

"No, I didn't think we'd need to bring our own pots and pans."

Kali frowned then looked over at Charmander. She smiled and turned to face me, saying "I bet Charmander could help."

"What?" Charmander and I asked at the same time.

"Sure. You brought marshmallow sticks, didn't you? We can just stick the sausages onto those and get Charmander to cook them."

I glanced over at Charmander, he shrugged. "It could work."

Walking over to my bags, I dug out two marshmallow poles and handed one to Kali as I came back. Charmander laid down on the floor belly-up. Kali stuck two (thawed) sausages on her pole and I did the same on mine. I nodded to Charmander to signal we were ready when he was. Charmander nodded as well and blew a short stream of fire from his mouth. It lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to cook (and to burn) the sausages. The fire lizard sat up and I lowered the pole to him, he picked one of the sausages and began to nibble it. Kali was blowing on hers to cool it down (or to blow out the flame) and started to eat. I pinched my remaining sausage and shot my hand back with a shout. "Don't burn yourself." Kali giggled.

"Thanks for telling me this _after_ I burn myself." I replied wryly with my burnt finger in my mouth. I blew on the sausage and bit tenderly into it. The meat and spices intermingled warmly, even with the burned areas. I ate the sausage happily, even if it burned my tongue. "I guess we need to get a bed for you, Kali."

"Why? I can just sleep on Snorlax."

"Snorlax don't sleep forever." I reminded her. "Plus, they don't come with a blanket." Kali shook her head defiantly. I shrugged impatiently, "Fine, whatever, it's your call." Mary poked her head inside the cave and told us to get ready for morning flag ceremony.

Kali and I stepped outside after the girl's camp leader and followed her to the amphitheater, where a flag pole stood to the side of the stage. Other kids were sitting on the bleachers, and they ignored Kali and I, for the most part, as we came up the bleachers. We found two empty seats towards the back and sat next to two girls who were giggling something about a certain boy towards the front. I couldn't help but overhear parts of their conversation, and I winced each time they said something colorful and uncouth. Being raised a Latter Day Saint (or Mormon, as we're more frequently called) I never liked swearing of any kind.

Russell stepped up onto the stage, went back to get a microphone from Mary, then stood at down/center stage. The mic screeched a little and hushed the crowd. "How's everyone this morning?" A collective mutters of "good" "ok" "pretty good" came from his audience. The man held a hand to his ear and said. "I can't hear you." Now people shouted their answer, making it a sea of noise. Russell laughed. "That's more like it. Before we begin with today's agenda, we have to raise the flag."

A white flag was passed from Mary to Lawrence, and Lawrence mounted the flag on the pole. Lawrence raised it up, and everyone could see a blue stripe through the middle and a pokeball in the center. Lawrence, Mary, and Russell held their hands over their hearts and looked up at the flag. No one else knew their pledge, so we stood and listened. Once that was over, everyone sat down. Mary took the microphone from Russell and announced to the girls "Today, everyone's going to be going to catch their first pokemon. Girls, we will be leaving right after this."

Lawrence spoke up, his voice was loud enough, he didn't need the mic. "Boys, we'll be leaving right after the girls come back, so don't wander around."

Mary cleared her throat at the interruption. "Afterwards, we'll start learning the art of Pokemon battles." She glanced at Russell, "Unless there's more" Russell shook his head, "everyone's dismissed."

Kali and I tried to sneak away, but Mary caught up to us. "You two are coming along as well."

"But we already have our first pokemon." I protested.

"No one is getting left behind in this."

"But-"

"NO one." she glared. I glanced at my friend, seeing no other option, we fell into the line of other girls. 

**(A/N Tecy: Just as a heads-up, WattPad has the MOST recent version of this story (and all of its many minor edits) so check up on the story there if you can't wait for more here. **

**I realize that Mary is contradictory from letting me go out on my own to now forcing Kali and myself to come along with the group. Meh. **

**Also- Amor de mi Alma = You are the love of my soul. So, yeah, that's why I don't like it when my friend sings that to me.) **


	4. Chapter 4- Eevees

All the girls of our camp were walking down the road, some of them seemed timid that a pokemon would jump out at them when they weren't ready. Kali and I were stuck in the middle of the group, Mary didn't want us sneaking off and going back to camp. _This is so stupid._ I thought _I don't even want to be here._ Someone screamed behind me. I turned to look and a small fluffy pokemon that had long ears and a long bushy tail was cowering next to a rock. The pokemon suddenly bolted towards Kali and me. _An eevee!_ I knelt down and blocked its path. The pokemon looked up at me. It cocked its head to one side and poked my cheek with its paw playfully. I pulled out a pokeball and clicked its button. The eevee closed its eyes and went inside the ball shook once... twice... three times... and _click_. I pressed the button to let eevee out and she smiled and poked my cheek again. "Hiyas, trainer."

"Tecy. I'm Tecy."

"And I'm Charmander." The little fire pokemon said coming out from behind the eevee.

"Oh, hai!" She smiled. "I'm Leah."

"Nice to meet you." Charmander nodded. "We're going to be great friends, I can tell."

"Aww, I want an eevee too!" Kali squealed from above me.

"Then go find one." I laughed and turned to look up at her. "Leah's mine."

"Yay!" Leah grinned happily.

Kali pouted for a moment then smiled as well at the little eevee. Picking my newest pokemon up, Leah crawled over and spread herself over my shoulders, leaving almost no room for Charmander. "Scoot over a little, Leah!" Charmander whined, "I wanna sit down on Tecy's shoulder too!" Leah moved a little bit, Charmander still had trouble staying up. I stood up, which threw him off balance. I didn't react fast enough to catch him, but Kali did, and I was afraid she would choke him the way she squeezed his little orange body.

"Kali, you're choking him!" I cried out. She relaxed her grip on the fire pokemon, who then took long gasps of breath.

"Ooops. Sorry." She handed him to me and I held him close to me. "He's just SO CUTE."

The rest of the group were starting to pass us by, trying to stay with the rest of the group. Mary finally walked up to us and told us to hurry up as well. Kali and I kept walking along the path, but if Mary meant hurry up as in "run like the dickens 'till you reach the group" that wasn't going to happen. Finally we reached an open area with a ton of grass that reached maybe waist height. "That's really tall grass."

"Well, yeah. Most pokemon like tall grass." Charmander replied like this was absolutely normal. Which it was, for him at least. Still didn't mean I liked his sardonic tone of voice. Leah jumped off my shoulders and ran around in the grass, giggling as she went. Charmander climbed up onto my left shoulder as I hurried into the grass with Leah.

"Leah! Wait up!" I called out, I couldn't see her anywhere in the grass, but a small bit of pressure on my toes let me know she heard me. "We need to stay together, okay?"

"Okay!" She meowed, her big brown eyes staring straight up at me. I felt bubbly _So freaking adorable!_ "Let's go, Tecy!" She pounced into the grass, which hid her completely from sight. I took small steps towards her, worried that I might step on her. _Sheesh, no wonder why pokemon like tall grass. They're completely hidden!_

"Go, Snorlax!" Kali called out somewhere behind me. The large and heavy pokemon landed on the grass, still fast asleep. The grass beneath him was completely flattened. _Okay,_ almost _completely hidden_. Apparently Kali got into a pokemon battle, or she just wanted to be with her big teddybear of a pokemon. Either way, I lost complete track of Leah again.

"Ouch!" I heard my little pokemon call out, and she hurried back over to me, chased by a fluffy bird pokemon with red wings and a sharp beak. _Spearow._ Leah bounded back to where I was and looked up at me expectantly.

"Leah, tackle!" I commanded, pointing at the aggravated bird pokemon. Leah jumped up immediately and pinned the bird on the ground, it started pecking at her furiously and she moved away, but the angry bird continued its onslaught of pecks. "Leah, tackle!" I shouted again, and the eevee pinned the bird down in the grass once more. Once the bird was off her head, I could tell that she wasn't doing well at all. Her breathing was heavy and she cried out each time the spearow pecked at her. I nodded to Charmander, who nodded back and leaped into the fray. "Charmander, scratch! Leah, come back!" The two pokemon obeyed, and Leah jumped over to me and huddled her bloody body between my legs, finding it was the safest spot for her. _So adorable, even when she's hurt._ Charmander and the spearow traded scratches for pecks until the bird pokemon finally fell down in a heap. Charmander panted and wiped the back of his claw against his forehead, which was scratched up. He ran back over to Leah and me. The little eevee practically tackled him, trying to cuddle up close. I couldn't resist cooing just a little at them. "How are you guys feeling?"

"Tired" They said in unison. They glanced up at each other "Hey, don't copy me!" After a moment of speaking in unison (different words that had no real purpose), Leah giggled and got off of Charmander.

"I'm ready to go home now!" Leah announced sitting down at my feet. As beaten up as she was, I couldn't help but admire how much energy she always seemed to have. Maybe that's just an eevee thing.

"How about you, Charmander?" He nodded, stood up, and hurried over to me as well. I knelt down to pick them up, Leah jumped onto my shoulders again, taking up all the space. Charmander frowned at this so I carried him in my arms again. I glanced back to the path, most of the other girls were on the path, either because they already caught their first pokemon, or they were too scared to come out. I walked the few feet back to the path, walked past the other girls, found a rock, and sat down. Leah jumped off my shoulders, pushed Charmander aside, and fell asleep on my lap. Charmander looked down at the feline pokemon and frowned. I stroked his head and back a few times before he forced some space on my lap, curled up into a ball, and fell asleep as well.

"Awww, that's so cute!" Kali cooed quietly in front of us. I glanced up at my crazy friend and smiled as well. Her hands were in front of her mouth and she swayed to and fro. "So, did you catch any other pokemon?"

"No, but they did have their first pokemon battle... At least the first where I told them what to do." I replied. "For right now, I think I'll be alright with just two pokemon. Did you catch another pokemon?" Kali shook her head.

"Nope. I couldn't find an eevee."

"That's too bad. Is everyone else ready to go yet?" I asked, looking at the backs of the other girls. Kali laughed.

"Are you kidding? I'd be surprised if they ever go into the tall grass. They look like it'd eat them up or something!" A couple girls turned to glare at her for a second then went back to staring at the tall grass. Kali brought her snorlax out again (which pushed a few girls into the tall grass) and sat down on the big pokemon. She patted a spot next to her, inviting me to sit down with her. I silently motioned to the two pokemon asleep in my lap. Kali shrugged and fell backwards onto her pokemon. "I'm bored."

"Then go find an eevee." I suggested "I'm sure you can find at least one."

"I want you to come with me, Tec-chan!" She said in her childish voice. I motioned to my pokemon again. "You can put them in their pokeballs." I frowned. Whether I had pokemon in my lap or not, I didn't feel like getting up. Plus the childish voice she used was _very_ obnoxious. But, being the softy that I am, I couldn't say no. I sighed heavily, put Charmander and Leah into their pokeballs, and stood up.

"Fine. Let's go." I huffed. Kali squealed happily, put snorlax back in his pokeball, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me into the tall grass. "Just to let you know, if you step on a pokemon, you're battling it."

"Fine by me!" She practically sang. Kali looked around at the tall grass then ducked into the plant life. I felt a little awkward to follow her into the grass so I stayed standing, watching her look around in the grass. "Sheesh, how do pokemon know where they are in tall grass?"

"Same way we know where we are in a big city, I guess." Probably not the right analogy for this, but whatever. A bit of grass ahead shook. "Hey, Kali."

"Yeah?"

"There's some shaking grass. Why don't you check it out?" Kali poked her head from the grass to see the shaking bit of grass.

"Uh, okay." She said, stood up, and walked into the bit of grass. "OHMIGOSH IT'S AN EEVEE!" She screamed. I held my hands over my ears. _Sensitive ears, Kali. I have sensitive ears_. I slowly pulled my hands away from my head as Kali picked up a stunned brown pokemon and hugged it. The eevee gave her a "who the heck are you and what are you doing" look. I couldn't help but chuckle as the little pokemon struggled to jump down.

"Kali. Shouldn't you catch the eevee _before_ you smother it?" I asked, reminding her I was still there. Kali looked up at me and tried to reach for a pokeball but it looked impossible with the struggling eevee.

"Little help here?" She asked after a moment of struggling with the eevee and getting a pokeball.

I nodded to her and took the eevee from her arms. The eevee cried out in protest and struggled against my grip. I felt bad holding it against its will, but eevee would run off if I let go, and who knows how long it will take before we find another one. Kali grabbed a pokeball after a moment of searching and held it up to the eevee and clicked the button. The eevee disappeared from my arms and into the pokeball. Kali dropped down onto the pokeball. _Click._ She then jumped up victoriously with the pokeball in hand.

"Isn't that cheating?" I asked my crazy friend as she held the pokeball like it was Simba from _The Lion King._

"Maybe, but it worked, didn't it?" She smiled. Kali let eevee out of its pokeball. The feline pokemon meowed something (and it didn't sound happy). Kali practically fell backwards in surprise and started to comically freak out. "You can talk?" Eevee was surprised by Kali's antics then fell back into a somber state of pure hate. The pokemon mewed something else, I could only imagine what she said, but I figured it wasn't complimentary. Seeing as I was being ignored, I walked back to the path and sat down on my rock. I brought out my pokemon from their pokeballs and let them sleep in my lap, Charmander on my left leg and Leah on my right. A shadow passed over me and I looked up to see Kali holding onto her eevee above me. I shrank under Eevee's gaze, it looked like it was ready to murder someone. "Why did you leave me, Tec-chan?" Kali pouted.

"_Don't_ look at me like that." I protested. "You were talking to eevee-"

"_Trouble_."

"... Trouble... And that made me feel like a third wheel." After a moment I gave Kali a questioning look, "'Trouble'?"

"Yep!" Kali smiled happily while Trouble scowled. _That's a weird name._ I glanced back at Trouble. That eevee looked like it was ready to get into a lot of trouble, which may or may not involve killing someone. _Although, it does make sense in this case._ Charmander shifted on my leg and yawned, letting out a blast of hot air as he stretched out. He sat up and rubbed his eyes sleepily. All of his scratches and cuts were gone. "Good morning, Charmander!" Kali exclaimed, startling Charmander. "Or is it afternoon now?" Trouble growled something.

"It doesn't matter." I shrugged. Charmander sat up on my leg, making sure of his surroundings. "How are you feeling?" I asked him.

"Lots better." He smiled. "Ready to battle the world!"

"We're not battling the world, Charmander." I giggled. Trouble hissed something, probably to Kali, whose cheerful demeanor was fading away into indignation. Charmander was staring up at Trouble.

"Who is that?" He whispered to me, turning just enough for me to see him blush.

"That's Trouble." I replied in a hushed voice.

"That's not true at all!" Kali shouted, looking up, I realized she was arguing with Trouble and probably didn't hear what I said. I glanced back to Charmander.

"I seriously doubt they will _ever_ be able to get along." I whispered.

"Wanna bet on it?"

"Not really, no." I replied, checking on Leah, her scratches were almost completely healed. Kali and Trouble were arguing to a boiling point, people were walking away behind her and down the path. Either they felt awkward listening to a person- seemingly- talk to herself or the group was leaving. Telling Charmander the second possibility, he leaped off my leg and landed on the ground a few inches away from my foot. I cradled Leah in my arms as we walked behind the group. Kali started following me, still arguing, and probably insulting, her newly caught pokemon. If pokemon really could run away from their trainers, I would not be surprised if Trouble would be gone by morning... or in an hour. The other girls tried to put as much distance between Kali and themselves, and I honestly didn't blame them. Still, Kali _is_ my friend, so I put up with it. Finally I heard the sound of a pokeball and turned to see Kali put Trouble back in her pokeball. I didn't ask any questions, Kali still looked really pissed.

"Tec-chan? How is it you catch really nice pokemon while I got a jerk?" My friend asked, her anger replaced by sorrow.

"I didn't jump on the pokeballs when I tried to catch them." I commented, "Plus I already kinda had a bond with them before I caught them." Kali frowned and crossed her arms, walking alongside me. She was feeling down, and what could I do to cheer her up? I grinned as a C_odement_ reference came to mind. "Kali, how'd you get here so fast?"

She caught on immediately. "Through the MAGIC of television!" Kali laughed. "Nah, I just got a ride from the XLPD officers. They drive CR-AZY!" We giggled for a moment before Kali started to sing "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts" and I came in soon after, putting even more distance between us and the other campers.

**(A/N Tecy: Kali is my friend doing the collab with me, if that wasn't clear before. All of her pokemon are her characters. Leah, my eevee, is based off of a person who loves Pokemon and was excited about this story but _didn't_ want to collab. Granted, it's hard enough writing two trainers in one perspective, three would've been too much.**

**Also, Watch Codement. It is hilariously spontaneous.)**


	5. Chapter 5- Jessica

We made it to camp after a few minutes and we hurried inside the base. I put Leah (who, miraculously, was still asleep) on my pillow before walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge door. "What do you guys want for lunch?"

"What do we have?" Charmander asked, peeking in from between my knees.

"Uh, well. There are berries..." Stepping over to a counter and finding some bread and peanut butter, I offered. "We could make sandwiches."

"That works." Kali perked up. Shuffling and some clanking came from behind the partition and it piqued my curiosity for a moment, at least until Kali came back with paper plates and plastic utensils. "We can use these."

"Great. What was that noise?"

"I brought silverware but apparently my mom got me plastic stuff as well." She shrugged "That's all." Leah came into the room and yawned.

"Hello, everyone!" Leah greeted us.

"Hiyas!" I smiled at the little feline pokemon. "How are you feeling?"

"A little tired." She admitted with another yawn. "That noise woke me up." Leah yawned deeply then asked. "What's for lunch?"

"We're making sandwiches. What kind of berry do you want on yours?"

"Pecha!" Leah cried out happily.

"Eh, I'll eat whatever." Charmander replied, still in the fridge. "Tecy, mind getting the berries out? I can't reach."

"Huh? Sure, Charmander. What berries do you want for your sandwich?" Charmander shrugged. "No idea?"

"I don't really care."

Frowning, I took out a tray of pecha, oran, and cheri berries and set them on the counter. Kali was busy spreading peanut butter on two of the sandwiches. "What about your pokemon, Kali?" She motioned behind her, Snorlax was finally awake and Trouble seemed to be sizing him up. Kali didn't answer my question, but I figured she had that covered.

Kali was chopping berries up and placing the slices on the bread. I handed our pokemon their sandwiches."Do you want any berries on your sandwich?" She asked me, nibbling a pecha slice.

I shrugged "Sure, uh, pecha and oran, I guess." Kali obliged and put slices of those berries on bread (that had peanut butter on it), closed it, and handed the plate to me once I got back. Kali and I talked a bit while we ate, mostly about anime and such. Charmander and Leah were sharing a little bit of each other's sandwiches, and, as far as I could tell, Trouble ate in silence. Kali would occasionally talk to Snorlax about something, and the big pokemon would smile broadly.

"Any ideas what we're doing after this, Tec-chan?"

"Nope. I know Mary mentioned something, but I forgot what it was." I shrugged, "It probably doesn't matter anyway."

"Theresa? Kali?" Mary called into our base. Annoyed by nothing in particular, I sighed heavily and stepped out into the open, seeing the girls' leader. "Oh, there you two are. We've been looking everywhere."

"Why?" I huffed. Charmander's claws clacked against the stone floor as he checked to see what was going on. The noise started to bug me.

"We were _supposed_ to go straight into learning about pokemon battles after the hike." Mary explained with a hint of impatience in her voice. "Except you two were nowhere to be found, so now we're off schedule!" _Well, excuuuse ME, princess._ "Hurry up, you two! Everyone's waiting!" The fat woman came in and rushed us out. She had us put our pokemon back into their pokeballs until we reached the battling ground, and she absolutely HAD to escort us the rest of the way to where the other girls were. Some of them looked at us impatiently, some didn't even want to be there (like I could blame them), and the rest were busy with their pokemon. A few were freaking out, apparently they didn't expect pokemon could talk to their trainers. Then again, I didn't expect it either. From what I could see, there wasn't much diversity between pokemon: there were spearows, pidgeys, and rattatas. Only one other trainer had an eevee. "Okay, girls! Now that EVERYONE'S here, pair up with someone you DON'T KNOW!"

Kali scoffed and tried to grab my hand. "As if THAT'LL ever happen." We stood together, though I kept my hand away from hers. Mary pulled me away, repeating that we have to pair up with someone we didn't know, then tagged me with a girl about my age. This girl had blonde with her hair curled into ringlets and brown eyes. She watched her friend get paired up with Kali, then glared at me. I could tell we were going to be _great_ friends.

"Hi. I'm Tecy." I introduced myself to her, trying to be friendly despite the glare she was giving me.

"'Tecy'?" She scoffed "What kind of name is that?"

"It's my name." I replied, frowning. "What's your name?"

"Jessica." She replied. After a moment she said "Look, I don't care how smart you _think_ you are, you're going down."

"We'll see about that." I stepped about ten feet away from her and nodded down to Charmander. "Are you ready?" With a determined glint in his eyes, he nodded and ran out a foot in front of me, ready for battle.

"Wait, you're battling already?" Mary asked, looking up at us.

"Can it!" Jessica shouted at the leader, then focused her attention on me, ignoring the indignant look Mary gave her. "You want to battle? You're going to get one! Lady, go!" Her eevee, Lady, jumped out at Charmander. "Tackle!" Lady started running towards the fire pokemon.

"Ember!" I instructed, Charmander entered the fray. As the opponent's eevee got close, Charmander spat out a small flame at her. They collided, Lady jumped back with singed fur.

"I don't suppose you two _know_ what you're doing." Mary accused, rightfully upset by Jessica's rude outburst.

"I've battled wild pokemon earlier," I replied, politely. "but if there's something you want to say, feel free to."

"... I'll let you two figure this out." Mary sighed, stepping back.

I turned my attention back to the battle; Charmander was looking up at me expectantly. "Right, ember once more. Try to burn her." The fire lizard pokemon nodded and ran towards the feline pokemon. The eevee received her orders and ran towards him as well, preparing to tackle. Charmander let her hit first, making it point-blank for his ember to hit. Lady's long fur on her chest caught fire. The small pokemon panicked and leaped off of charmander and ran back to her trainer. Jessica smothered the flame with a glove. From what I could see, the fur and skin burned looked blackish. Charmander glanced up at me once more, he slightly worse for wear. "Ember again, try aiming for the same spot you just burned." The little orange lizard leaped back into the fray. Lady seemed more intimidated by Charmander now, but still tackled him, and, once again, the fire lizard hit his target. Lady jumped back, head low and one eye closed. _Critical hit._ The eevee stepped back, obviously exhausted, but still not out. Charmander hurried over to me once more, he was tired as well, but not as much as Lady was. "You okay or do you want to switch out?"

"I got this." He smiled up at me. "Just give me the instructions" I considered what to do for a moment when he spoke up once more. "By the way, you can just tell me what to do for more than one attack. It might be easier for us to win that way."

"Okay then." Glancing up at Lady, I couldn't tell how many more hits it would take for her to faint. "Burn her again and attack the burns either with fire or with claws whenever you can." I wasn't sure how well this would work, but it was no longer in my hands. Charmander ran back into the middle, as did Lady. Charmander spat out a small flame, Lady almost dodged it, but the side of her was black from the burn. Her tackle failed as she moved off to the side, trying to avoid using her burned side. The eevee tried to retreat back to her trainer, but Charmander had already been given his order, and he came after her again. Lady shrank down, unsure of what to do; Charmander came closer to the eevee, and all her panicked mind could think of was to run away from him.

"He's attacking again?" Jessica shouted, angry and shocked. She glared at me, "That's cheating!"

I shrugged and crossed my arms. "Sorry, it's my first real life trainer battle."

"You said you battled before!"

"That was a wild pokemon battle. There's a difference. But if you insist, then you better give your pokemon her instructions." Jessica scowled at me, but shouted for Lady to evade and tackle. The eevee tried her best to obey her orders, but with Charmander not only having melee attacks but also with ranged (or is it magic?), it was nearly impossible. Charmander seemed to be growing impatient and he faked a left, bringing Lady to the right, and he slashed out across her chest, all over her first burn. The feline pokemon gasped a little, then fell over, fainted.

Jessica scowled at me even more. "You cheated!"

"That _wasn't_ cheating." Mary corrected, speaking up on my behalf. "Trainers are allowed to tell their pokemon a strategy without having them come back each time. After a while, the Trainers and Pokemon don't even need to communicate, they just battle." Mary patted my shoulder and smiled. "I'm surprised you knew that."

"I... _I_ didn't. Charmander told me." I replied, picking my pokemon up and letting him stretch out over my shoulders. I glanced over at Jessica, who had just put Lady back into her pokeball. "That was a good battle." I told her, trying to be nice. Jessica didn't reply, just gave me a death glare and turned away, storming off towards camp.

"That _was_ a very good battle." Russell commented from my left. "Was that your first time in a trainer battle?" I nodded. "Impressive." The camp counselor smiled, his eyes seemed to land on Charmander. "Mary, do you mind if I borrow Theresa for a moment?" Mary shrugged and mentioned she didn't mind. I glanced back and over at Kali, who was making her way through the crowd, and started off farther down the field with Russell.

**(A/N Tecy: Jessica _is_ my rival but she is _not_ based off of anyone in particular. She's mostly here for conflict, which probably is not a good reason to throw her in the story, but I'm seriously scared of god-modding my/Kali's characters/pokemon. Also, not that it really needs mentioning, but ****Jessica is _my_ rival. She doesn't have any conflict with Kali (that you know of) other than Kali just being my friend.)**


	6. Chapter 6- More Team Rocket

Charmander let Leah out of her pokeball and the small feline pokemon bounded alongside me, occasionally jumping around the wildflowers that grew. I watched Leah as she pounced and batted at the small flowers. "Theresa, where did you find your charmander?" Russell asked, reminding me he was there.

"In a grove a little ways away from camp." I replied.

Frowning, the camp counselor commented "Charmanders aren't found wild around this area." He repeated his initial question and I recounted the story of how I met Charmander; my little pokemon corrected some of the details, and when I finished Russell rubbed his chin in thought. "Those men you attacked, did they mention what organization they were in?"

"Yes. Team Rocket." I replied. Russell frowned and furrowed his eyebrows. "I take it you've heard of them?" Russell nodded. After a moment of silence I asked. "Do you mind if I go back to camp?"

"No, but, do you mind showing me what you did?"

"Well... Most of what I did was reaction, not an actual technique _per se_." I explained, "Plus it was yesterday that I fought them, so I wouldn't really remember what I did anyway." Russell nodded and he let me go back to camp. Leah pounced on my feet occasionally on the way back, I kept my gaze down at her, trying to be sure I didn't accidentally step on the energetic pokemon. A figure immediately in front of me made my gaze snap up, and I was startled to see Kali in front of me. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" Kali gave me a weird look. She didn't sneak up on me, and I knew it. Sighing, I corrected myself. "Okay, fine, don't _startle_ me like that."

"What did he want?"

"He wanted to know how I found Charmander." I explained. "Nothing more."

"So?"

"Charmanders aren't found wild in these mountains. Russell, the guy I was talking to, probably wanted to make sure I hadn't smuggled Charmander into camp or got him from, I dunno, Team Rocket." I chuckled at the last part, as it was true. Partially at least.

"So, how _did_ you get charmander, if they aren't found here?" We started walking back to base as I told her what had happened. She started to laugh. "Oh, so you DID get him from Team Rocket."

"Eh, kinda." I corrected her "I got him _away_ from Team Rocket."

"Yeah, yeah, same difference." Kali waved it off. We rounded the corner to where the bases were, and could barely believe our eyes. The place was _packed_ with Team Rocket grunts, Charmander, panicking, went back into his pokeball, and I brought Leah into hers as well. Kali pulled me into the rock away from the grunts. She hissed "What are they doing here?"

"Looking for Charmander" I whispered back. It just seemed like my pokemon was what they were after. Glancing into the pokeball that held charmander, I could tell he feared the same thing. "We have to find the camp leaders, they'll know what to do." I started to move back to where the girls were battling, but two men came up from behind the corner. Panicking a little, I rushed out at them and knocked them out as quickly as I could, which also brought me into the sight of the other grunts. _That wasn't smart. That was NOT smart._ Kali gave me a glare that told me she thought the same. I held my arms up _en __guarde_, ready for other grunts to run up and fight me. Instead, they pulled out a number of pokeballs. _Figures, these guys can only fight with their pokemon._ I glanced down at the pokeballs strapped to me. Leah gave me a determined look. She was more than ready to take them on. I hesitated, she hadn't done very well battling the spearow before, how much stronger were Team Rocket's pokemon? Charmander was still injured from battling Lady. I looked back up at the grunts, their pokemon were all rattata or zubat, and none of them were very big. That made me feel tons better about battling them. "Hey, Kali. Mind if we tag-team?" I grinned mischievously at the Team Rocket grunts. "We can totally take these freaks." Kali stepped out from behind the rock wall, seeing the pokemon the grunts had, she too gained confidence.

"Awright! Let's kick some trash!" She cried out, holding Trouble's pokeball up. I held up Leah's pokeball and we sent out the normal type pokemon. Trouble scanned the crowd of pokemon and an evil glint came into her eyes. She meowed something which caused Kali to smile. "Okay, Trouble. Go right on ahead!" With that, the devilish eevee leaped into the fray, biting down on the zubats that came too close to her.

"So Trouble's got the zubats covered?" I asked my friend for confirmation. Kali nodded and I glanced down at Leah "Looks like we're battling the rattatas. Avoid their teeth and try to tackle over their necks, but" I winked at her "try not to kill them." Leah smiled up at me and then leaped into the battle, literally. My eevee hopped from rattata to rattata, landing on their heads and driving their faces into the dirt. The rat pokemon started to avoid her, ganging up as to surround her and attack. Leah seemed to smile at them and hop out of the way right as they lunged, knocking into another's head. I glanced over to see how Trouble was doing, and she was eyeing the bat pokemon hungrily, causing them to retreat into the air. Grunts shouted their instructions to the pokemon, and many of them were reluctant to obey. The first thought to my mind was that our eevees intimidated them, although Trouble was the only one mildly intimidating. What else could there be that would cause these pokemon to ignore their trainers? _They're stolen._ Seeing these pokemon in a new light, I couldn't help but feel sad for them to be forced to battle for Team Rocket. That sadness became anger towards the rocket grunts for using stolen pokemon and not going out and catching and training their own. My fists tightened and my teeth clenched, it took a lot of strength and self-control to not walk up to each and every grunt and punch them in the face. It would feel _really good_ if I did. Probably after the battle. Seeing Leah get flung to the side by a surprise attack from a rattata snapped me out of my thoughts. "Leah!" I called out, she looked up and gave me a 'what?' expression. She then focused on the battle at hand. _Stupid, of course she's ok, it'll take more than one hit to make her faint. _But it also takes more than one hit for the other pokemon to faint as well. I glanced over at Trouble, who was flying through the ranks of zubats. _Okay, unless you're a demon of an eevee, it takes more than one hit to cause fainting. _Why was Trouble so strong anyway? I glanced over at Kali. She mentioned to me that she would massively train her pokemon, even before we knew they were more than pixels on a handheld device. Did she already? Or was Trouble overpowered to begin with?

"Fine, fine, we give." One of the grunts grumbled, snapping me out of my thoughts. Trouble had finished off the zubats and had cornered the rattatas with Leah. Trouble was growling menacingly.

"Yeah, what she said!" Leah growled at the rattatas.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded after calling Leah back. My eevee had a few scrapes, but nothing serious. Trouble was worse off, though she didn't show it.

"It doesn't matter now, does it? There's no pokemon around here, so there's nothing to steal." Already pissed off that Team Rocket stole the pokemon they used, the information about them intending to _steal more_ pokemon was enough for me to sock the speaker in the jaw. He dropped like a stone, causing the other grunts to step back. I glared at the other grunts, holding up the fist I punched with I demanded them to tell me why they were there and if the guy I punched was telling the truth. They muttered that they were going to steal pokemon, doing so in a way that I couldn't see who said what. I didn't have to.

"You disgust me." I turned away "Leave now, and never come back." Nothing. I glanced over my shoulder. "You're still here?" Trouble growled at them and the grunts ran away screaming "Team Rocket's blasting off again!" They left the guy I knocked out in front of me.

"Go, Tec-chan!" Kali cheered. "That was awesome!" Trouble meowed something and Kali rewarded her by putting her back in her pokeball. Leah leaped over to me and pawed at my leg. Lifting her up, she climbed onto my shoulders and lay down, swiftly falling asleep. I glanced down at the grunt at my feet and kicked him in the ribs. He groaned and shifted slightly on the ground.

"What do you think we should do with him?" I asked.

"I say we take the sword and neuter him right here, give him the bob barker treatment!" Leah giggled, obviously getting the _Shrek 2_ reference from the mind connection. I laughed but shook my head.

"No, that's too cruel."

"Hey boss, let's shave him." Leah giggled, doing her best to copy Puss's voice. It didn't pan out, her vocal range was too high.

Laughing I turned that down as well. "No, no. Not that either."

"What's going on here?" Russell asked from behind me. He looked down at the Team Rocket grunt then to me. "You beat _someone else_ up now?"

"Three people!" Kali announced, kicking at the two bodies that were by her.

"_Theresa._" Russell frowned.

"What?" I asked "It's not like he didn't deserve it. They were stealing pokemon!"

"There aren't any pokemon here for them to steal. We both know that." Russell lectured. Why the heck was he defending them? I would've thought he would be _praising_ me.

"It's the thought that counts." I replied, slightly confused on why he was taking the side of a criminal. "And I didn't want them to think they can just waltz into someone's base and steal what's theirs. Especially when it comes to pokemon."

"You tell him, Tecy!" Leah mewed in agreement, her fluffy fur around her neck was tickling my cheek. "No WAY are we gonna stand for that!"

"I agree, but attacking unprovoked..."

"There WAS provocation." I interrupted "There was definitely provocation."

"And that was?" Russell asked, giving me an expectant look.

"Uh, well... He... said something that pissed me off." I replied.

"That's it?"

"... Yeah." Now that I think of it, that probably wasn't going to suffice. Russell glanced over at the other two I attacked.

"They too?"

"No. They surprised me and that was how I reacted." Now I felt really stupid about attacking them. It made sense at the time, but not in hindsight.

"Go back to your base." Russell instructed looking up to Kali, "_Both_ of you. I'll take care of the Rocket grunts." With that he lifted the grunt at my feet over his shoulder and started to walk towards the infirmary tent. Kali walked over to me then positioned herself facing the tent.

"That was weird."

"What else is new?"

Kali frowned at my sarcastic reply, then turned completely to me. "Seriously, why was that guy defending the Rocket grunts? They're the enemy."

"No idea. But we should go back to base."

**(A/N Tecy: Now things are starting to get confusing... OR ARE THEY? DUN DUN DUUUUNNNN. Nah, I'm kidding. And no spoilers this time 'round. You'll have to figure this out for yourself... Iiiif You haven't already... I should hope you have... EENYVEY I don't have much commentary for this chapter except TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAIN!)**


	7. Chapter 7- Lost, Found, Revelation

"I wanna go on a hike." Kali pouted, looking up at the path into the woods.

"But Russ..." I began to protest, deciding against it, I sighed impatiently, "Okay, we can go on a hike." _It's not like we would take that long anyway. We'll be back before we're missed._ I started up the trail behind Kali. We hiked along the forest trail talking and laughing and going over ideas for our Hetalia fanfictions she was working on. Leah fell asleep on my shoulder, and I had to keep my shoulders steady so she wouldn't fall off. Charmander shook in his pokeball, wanting to be let out. Finally I obliged, and I carried him as well. Charmander soon fell asleep in my arms. Kali scratched his scaly belly as he slept, he smiled and snored happily when she did.

Looking ahead we came to a crossroad, there was no sign to signal what was ahead on either path, and both ways looked pretty much the same. Without asking which direction we should go, I wandered off to the left. The path went from dirt to gravel a little ways out and the path became a lot steeper. I glanced up to the top of the hill we faced, roots and rocks and trees blocked the sky from sight, but whatever light came through made it clear that it was close to dusk. Kali pushed me a little to continue climbing, I put my pokemon back into their pokeballs and started up the hill. The rocky road beneath me made the climb harder, but seeing as Kali stood in the way of me going back down, I had to press on. I slipped a couple times trying to get to the top, but I finally climbed over the last obstacle to the summit. I gasped at the sight, and Kali made her way next to me. We were standing on the cliffside that we built our secret bases on, seeing the entire camp and forest around it was breathtaking. From where we were, I could see a lake a ways away from camp- probably where the path to the right lead. "Tec-chan, look!" Kali pointed to the camp. "Doesn't it look like a giant 'R'?" The auditorium in the middle, the cliff, and the borders of the forest did, indeed, make the camp look like a backwards "R".

"That's... Kinda cool." I shrugged. "Probably an accident." The lights in the camp turned on and the sky started getting darker. The lights outlined the 'R' perfectly. _That's no accident. _"We need to head back." I expressed, with an uneasy feeling about all the events that happened at camp up to that point. Kali nodded, she seemed to be feeling the same. We started heading back down the hill; although we weren't using as much energy going down the hill, the roots and rocks shooting out made the way down hazardous. Thankfully Kali and I made it to the gravel road without falling, but the sun was setting quickly over the mountains. It grew dark quicker than I anticipated, and it wasn't long before we could barely see the road ahead of us. The temperatures dropped, and it eventually got to the point where I was shivering. Living in Utah, where it snows anywhere from early October to the middle of April, I thought I was used to the cold. Apparently not. "Ugh. I really wish I brought a sweater." I rubbed my freezing hands against my equally freezing arms in an attempt to warm them up. It worked a little, but not as much as I would have liked.

It got darker and colder, and I could've sworn we should have been at the crossroad by now. "D-do you th-think we w-went the wr-wrong way?" Kali asked, her teeth chattering.

"Wh-what do you m-mean?" I asked then involuntarily shuddered.

"I m-mean we m-might have p-passed the cr-crossroad already."

"A-and if w-we haven't?" Kali gave me a knowing look. I gazed up at the sky, stars twinkled against a midnight black canvas. "I th-think we p-passed it too, b-but I can b-barely see a-anything. W-we might a-as well p-press on."

"B-but T-Tec-chan! I-I'm freezing." She pouted.

"S-so am I." I admitted to her, still walking down the road. I noticed that I felt vaguely warmer when I walked than standing still. "B-but we need t-to find s-somewhere to c-camp." Kali protested some more, but kept walking with me anyway. After an hour we came across the lake I spotted from the cliffside.

"S-see? W-we p-passed th-the cr-crossroad." Kali complained. The night was getting colder, my fingers were stiff and didn't want to move. My legs kept moving along though, and I was walking in circles. I didn't even try to stop, walking made me feel better.

"I-I c-could g-guess." I shivered.

"Wh-why a-are y-you w-walking i-in c-circles?"

"N-no r-reason." One of my pokeballs started to shake. My frozen hand and arm made it harder to get to, but I let my pokemon out. Immediately the air became warmer as Charmander popped out of his pokeball, his tail made it easier to see our surroundings. He glanced up at Kali and I then and the sky.

"What are we doing outside at this time of night?" Charmander asked. I knelt down by the fire pokemon. _I am such an idiot._

"We got lost." I explained, my teeth no longer chattering. Kali came up to his other side and hugged him. His eyes widened, either because of how cold she was or because she surprised him... Or maybe because she was squeezing too hard. After a minute of him struggling she put him back down on the ground.

"Sooo... We're camping out here for tonight?" Charmander asked once his breathing became regular again.

"Yeah. Unless someone somehow manages to find us in the middle of the night." There was a long moment of silence between the three of us.

"Tec-chan, has it also been bugging you that the camp looked exactly like a backwards 'R'?" Kali asked. I nodded. "Then there's also Team Rocket showing up at camp, and Russell not actually doing anything about it..."

It was really weird. "Unless..." I thought aloud. Kali and Charmander looked up at me expectantly. "Unless Team Rocket was- is- somehow- the ones behind this camp." Charmander's jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT?!" My fire pokemon shouted, his hot breath felt like it would singe me, though I'd rather feel that than freezing to death. "You mean we're working for Team Rocket?"

"Of course not, Charmander. I've beaten up Team Rocket thugs twice, you were there both times. No, we aren't working for them."

"But that means Russell could be. IF Team Rocket IS the organization behind the camp." Kali reasoned, thinking hard as well.

"You doubt that he is?"

"Well..." She paused. "No, actually, It makes sense that he is. He stood up for them, after all. And..." Twigs cracked somewhere in the darkness, diverting our attention to the road. A light was scanning the path ahead, then came up at us. I held an arm over my head, trying to block the blinding light.

"Where. The. H*ll. Have you two been?!" Russell shouted. Charmander jumped onto my shoulders, either because Russell surprised him or because he now knew who Russell actually worked for. "You were told to go back to your base!"

"We got bored." I replied, standing up and swiping at the sawdust and dirt that gathered on the hem of my jeans. "And we didn't realize how quickly it gets dark- and cold- here."

Russell motioned us to the road and Kali and I obeyed. He went first, keeping his light trained on the path ahead, even though the light from Charmander's tail was enough for us to see vaguely what was around us. Owls- or probably Hoot-hoots- called out occasionally, which caused Charmander to panic slightly and dig his claws into my shoulder. _ow_. "Should we mention what we know to him?" Charmander asked, his voice shaking.

"No." I whispered. "We'd get into more trouble if we did." Russell glanced back at Kali, Charmander and I then went back to checking the ground for where the crossroad was.

"So, then what? Do we not do anything about it?" I didn't respond, mostly because I knew Russell would be able to hear me and may ask about it. "Tecy?"

"We _are_ going to do something about it." I reassured him as quietly as I could and still be heard. "I just don't know what yet."

**(A/N Tecy: Aaaaaaaand we get lost. It WOULDN'T BE a story about a summer camp if someone DIDN'T get lost, now would it? No. That's what I thought. **

**Real subtle Team R, _reeeeeaaaal subtle_**

**And Russell is working for the bad guys. Raise your hands if you saw that coming.)**


	8. Chapter 8- Plans to Escape

p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"We sailed off to a beach and Captain Briney pulled the boat onto the sandy shore, unwilling to accept any help from Tecy or myself. "Aaaah, here you go, girls. Go take care of the Devon Goods." He said, motioning to the city above the beach. Tecy and I jumped out of the boat and started walking up the beach. We battled a couple trainers before reaching the road. I started up to the city but Tecy grabbed my arm and pointed to the shore house only a short distance away. She gave me a grin, and I nodded. We rushed over to the beach house and went inside. A couple trainers were inside, lounging around. A guy at the back was wiping down shot glasses, we approached him./p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Soda pop is 20 Poke each or you get a dozen free if you can beat all the trainers here." He motioned to the trainers lazing about. Tecy and I shrugged and walked up to the trainers, battling each of them and kicking the tar out of their pokemon. After we battled all the trainers, we walked back up to the guy standing behind the counter. He already had twenty four bottles of soda ready for us. Tecy and I took twelve and walked out and onto the beach. Tecy handed me one and I gave her a questioning look.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Remember, I owe you a soda because of the jinx." She replied. I nodded and took the extra pop, shoving it into my bag with the other bottles of soda. We then went into Slateport, and I was surprised how empty the streets were, although it was 9:30 in the morning. Tecy and I noticed a large amount of Team Aqua grunts standing around in front of the Museum of Marine Biology. "It looks like we won't be able to get there yet." Tecy muttered. emHey, Captain Obvious, say something that I don't already know!em "I guess we should go to the shipyard." I gave her a flat look. "Yeah, okay. That was pretty obvious... Let's just go."/p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"I led the way to the large warehouse and entered. A man standing over some blueprints to a boat was muttering to himself and scratching his head. "Hey." I called out. "Is Captain Stern here?" The man glanced up at us.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""No. Captain Stern is working at the Museum." The man replied. "But it doesn't open for another hour." emThat explains why the Aqua Grunts are waiting outside.em/p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Okay, thanks." I said before leaving the warehouse. Tecy and I wandered around the city for a while. "Ugh. I'm so bored!" I cried out after about five minutes.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""We could try out the battle tent." Tecy offered, pointing to a tent with a pokeball sign in front, the words "Battle Factory" was written on it. "You know what the Battle Factory is, right?"p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Kinda..." I said, not wanting to look stupid and say 'no'.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""You go on a couple battles using the pokemon there and see how long of a battle streak you can hold."p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Mmm. Nah." I said, shaking my head. "The only pokemon I want to use are my own."p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Okay, then." Tecy shrugged and glanced at the stores she stopped in front of one and smiled. I looked into the window, it had an array of different kinds of swim suits. I gave my friend a questioning look. "We could go swimming."p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""But you have a fire-type pokemon with you." I reminded her.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Charmander doesn't have to go swimming." She shrugged. "He can sunbathe." I frowned. "Come on, Kali-senpai!"p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Okay then, Tec-chan!" I smiled, "We can go swimming."p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""yay" she breathed, referencing her favorite pony in emMy Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.em We went inside the swimsuit store, I picked out a modest teal tankini and Tecy picked out a modest purple one-piece swimsuit that also had a skirt. We changed at the Pokemon Center- which was really close to the beach- and let our pokemon out. I wasn't surprised when Charmander opted to stay inside and watch TV. Treecko stayed as well, claiming that one of his favorite shows was on. We killed a couple hours playing on the beach and swimming. Finally we came back to the Pokemon Center, changed back into our street clothes, and made our way to the Museum. The Aqua Grunts were no longer camping out, so we assumed the museum was open now and we walked in. The receptionists were physically nervous about having criminals in the museum, but they still did their jobs. We paid the 50 poke fee and spent some time looking around before going upstairs. I found the scientist working some finishing touches on a miniature replica of a submarine./p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Hello, Captain Stern, I was sent to deliver these goods from the Devon Corporation." I greeted him, as well as explaining why we were talking to him.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Oh, yes! Thank you." Captain Stern smiled as I held out the goods for him to take.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Hold it right there!" Someone shouted from behind us. I pushed the suitcase with the goods inside to Captain Stern before facing the two pirates who face us. "Team Aqua needs those goods."p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Then you're going to have to battle us for them." Tecy said, stepping up. The Aqua grunts got their pokeballs ready but Tecy, apparently, had a different kind of battle in mind. One that included her using her fists. Tecy laid the two pirates out with a swift punch each to their temples.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Awww, I wanted to punch someone, Tec-chan!" I pouted.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I'll let you get the next one." Tecy promised, then turned to look at a husky guy wearing the Team Aqua logo on his black shirt and ripped jacket and jeans. He took one look at the two KO'd goons on the floor and then up at Tecy.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I'm Archie, leader of Team Aqua. Judging by your outfits, I can guess that you aren't Team Magma. Although you attacked two of my grunts, I'll let you go this time. But mess with Team Aqua again and you won't be so lucky." The man said before walking back down the stairs. I couldn't help but laugh after he left. That guy was emtotallyem scared of my little Tec-child!/p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""That was... Quite... impressive." Captain Stern said, setting the goods on the table next to him. "I'll send word to Mr. Stone that I have the goods here."p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Okay." Tecy nodded. "We'll grab the authorities on the way out to take care of the pirates."p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""No, I'll take care of that myself." Captain Stern said, glancing down at the two sleeping goons on the floor. "I take it you're going to go see Mr. Stone right after this?"p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Mmm, probably not. We're just running the errand while we're on our Pokemon Journey." Tecy replied. I gave her a 'what about the EXP share' look and she replied with a shrug.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""You don't work for Devon Corporation?"p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Nope." I shook my head. "We're just better trainers than those guys." Tecy rolled her eyes but said nothing.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I see. Well, good luck on your journey." Captain Stern nodded his farewell to us, we said goodbye and left the Museum.p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strong(AN Tecy: More Team Aqua and more Karate. /strong/p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strongI'm not intimidating in the least, but Archie's smart enough to know when it's best to cut losses. (spoilers) Plus waiting to steal the actual submarine is a lot smarter than trying to steal the parts and have his grunts try to put it together (end of spoilers).strong/p  
>p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strongPoor Kali, she really wants to punch someone.)strong/p 


	9. Chapter 9- The Train

The rest of the night Kali and I discussed what we should or could do to get away from Team Rocket. But my curse of coming up with everything that could possibly go wrong dropped my spirits about escape. Mary came around with the wake-up call while Kali and I were still brainstorming. Looking outside, it was still dark. I checked my ticket, the train boarded at 5 in the morning, so it was probably close to 4 AM right now. Charmander and Leah woke up and hurried over to me. I put them into their pokeballs and glanced over at Kali, who just put snorlax into his pokeball. We exchanged worried looks before getting ready to go.

Mary had us pack everything up before we left, but she let us keep the laptops for the bases. She passed out a disc that looked like a grey record. "This is TM23, Secret Power" she explained. "Secret power will allow you to create secret bases without the need of a digger drill."

"So... How does it work?" One girl, who seemed to be more awake than anyone else, asked.

"You put the center piece on a pokemon's head and tap it twice, your pokemon will learn the move from that."

"Okay, but _how_ does it work?"

"... I haven't a clue." Mary admitted then pointed to the side at two buses. "Girls, climb into bus 223 and find a seat." We obeyed and fell into a line, Kali managed to get ahead and found a window seat. Not wanting to sit next to a stranger, I tried to pass my way over to Kali, but Jessica, who was right in front of me, would glare at me whenever I tried. _Sheesh, someone needs to take a chill pill._ I finally got to where Kali was sitting and sat down next to her, shoving my bag full of stuff under my seat.

"Sooo... What are we going to do once we get to the train station?" I asked Kali, still very concerned on how we'd be able to escape.

"Eh, we'll figure it out when we get there." She replied and waved it off. That didn't make me feel any better, especially because she wasn't taking this as seriously as she should. I let Charmander out of his pokeball and he sat in my lap as the bus started to move. Leah's pokeball shook and I let her out as well. The eevee climbed onto my shoulders and lay down, watching scenery as it passed by. After about ten minutes we reached the train station.

"That was fast." I commented, worry growing.

"No derp, sherlock." Kali laughed standing up, I gave her a frown as I climbed off the bus. The sleep-walking troupe of girls followed soon after us, a couple had to be shaken awake so they'd leave the bus. Mary stood at the front of the group and told us to give our tickets to the person at the counter. Kali and I did so first, and, to my dismay, there was only one set of tracks. Lights from a ways away signalled the train was almost there. The clock at the station showed that it was 4:40. Charmander gave me a worried look. The train was twenty minutes early, meaning we'd get to Johto twenty minutes earlier. _No. We are not going to Johto. Not now, and not with Team Rocket._ The train came quicker than I would have liked; granted, if I got my way, it'd never show. Kali and I were the first ones on board and we found a cabin, hoping no one else would sit with us. No one did. Russell came in after a few minutes and handed Kali and me a card each, explaining to us that it was our trainer card and that we could not lose it. _Ever._ He left the cabin and the train started to move.

**(A/N Tecy: Aaaaand that's the final chapter of Part 1. I hope you enjoyed it because now we are OFFICIALLY starting our Pokemon Journeys!.. Wiiiith Team R... Well, can't have everything, right?)**


	10. Part 2- Hoenn: Chapter 1- Journey Begins

"We've come to the last stop." The conductor said shaking my friend, Tecy, and me awake. No one else was in the cabin, as we had entered it. Tecy gave me a worried look. Knowing but not knowing what she's worried about, I shook my head to reassure her. It didn't seem to do much. I slowly got up from the seat and stretched out my stiff arms in front of me. I bent over as far as I could (which wasn't very far) to stretch my legs. I picked up my bag and slipped it over my shoulder. Tecy was getting her bag from the shelf above and, I couldn't help but laugh as it fell on her head. She gave me a soft glare before slinging it over her shoulder. Tecy stepped out tenderly into the train aisle then looked around confused.

"Where are we? And heck with that, where is everyone?" Tecy asked me.

"We'll find out soon enough." I shrugged in response while we continued through the train station. My heart jolted with joy when we finally exited the station and into a small town called Little Root in the region of Hoenn. "Tec-chan..." I giggled to her and pointed at the Little Root sign. My almost normal friend followed my gaze, immediately she relaxed and smiled as well.

"We're not in Johto. We're in Hoenn." _Tell me something I don't know, captain obvious. _Hoenn has always been my favorite region in the games, so of course I knew where we had ended up. "We escaped Team Rocket." She laughed deliriously "We escaped Team Rocket by falling asleep on a train!"

I laughed as well, then said "Come on," as I dragged Tecy off in the woods on the other side of town.

"Help!" a man yelped in the distance. "Help! Someone, anyone!" Having nothing better to do, Tecy and I rushed towards the voice. When we reached the area of the voice we saw a middle aged man wearing a white lab coat being chased by something through the tall grass. I shook my head slightly at the sight before pulling out one of my pokeballs and saying,

"Snorlax, let's blow this Popsicle Stand." Snorlax came out of the pokeball, awake this time.

"Okay, Kali-kins!" Snorlax smiled, scanning the grass for his opponent.

"Need any help?" Tecy chuckled.

"Nah I got this." I said, waving my hand up and down. "Snorlax, use body slam!" My big teddy bear pokemon lumbered into the tall grass after what was chasing the pokemon professor. The grass shook in a zig-zag pattern as the wild pokemon fled.

"Zigzagoon." Tecy muttered. I rolled my eyes as Professor Birch walked up to us.

"Thanks for the help." He held out a suitcase with three pokeballs inside. "Here, you both can have a Pokemon." I quickly took the ball containing Treecko, my favorite of all the hoenn starters, I reacted slightly to when it shocked me. I touched it again, there wasn't another shock so I took it. Tecy took the pokeball containing Mudkip she reacted as well to it shocking her, and she also decided to keep the pokemon.

I let my pokemon out of its pokeball and took a good look at the male treecko and stopped myself from hugging him, I asked, "What do you want to be called?"

"Treecko is fine," he replied casually.

"Alright, Treecko! Onwards!" I exclaimed in the most masculine voice I could muster and walked away, not bothering to see if anyone followed me. I started training my Pokémon on the small Wurmple and Poochyena that were in the tall grass nearby. I occasionally would glance around to make sure Tecy was within sight. More often than not, Leah was tailing along next to her while charmander and mudkip were probably training in the tall grass nearby. I focused mostly on training Treecko, as he was the weakest of my pokemon. I guessed that by the time we reached Petalburg, he was roughly level ten. Tecy and I both agreed that healing our pokemon would be the best thing to do, so we entered the red roofed building.

**(A/N Tecy: New Part means new POV, in case someone was confused. Hoenn is written in Kali's POV and she has done quite a lot for writing this region as well. And my friend's favorite region IS Hoenn, which is why we're going through this region first instead of, oh, I dunno, Kanto or Johto or one of the earliest regions Pokemon came out with. Speaking of which (spoilers) we're going to have A LOT of fun running away from Team Rocket in Kanto, considering that they've taken over the region (end of spoilers). Sorry this chapter ended so abruptly.)**


	11. Chapter 2- Games vs Real life

"Welcome to the Petalburg Pokemon Center." Nurse Joy smiled cheerfully. "Do you need to rest your pokemon here?" I nodded and pulled out the pokeballs that held my pokemon, but Nurse Joy instead led us into a hallway next to the counter which led to a hotel. She handed us a card key for a room and opened the door with a mastercard. "This will be your room until you leave Petalburg. We hope you sleep well." Nurse Joy then walked away. Tecy stepped into the hotel room first and I followed suit. The hotel room we were given for the time being had two full sized beds as well as a TV on a cabinet, a small bathroom with a shower and a tub was off in the corner.

"What was all that about?" I asked my friend. Tecy glanced up and shrugged.

"My assumption would be that the pokemon world is nothing like the games. There aren't machines that automatically heal our pokemon, they have to sleep it off." Tecy let her pokemon out of their pokeballs and lay them down on one of the beds. Her three pokemon were really small and they looked _so cute_ sleeping! I, again, refrained from hugging the three of them, knowing they needed sleep. I let out Treecko and Trouble, as they were the ones training the most. Snorlax was fine for right now, as most of the pokemon he was _supposed_ to battle ran away. Trouble glanced around in the small room and meowed.

"So, captor, what is this?"

"I'm your _trainer_! Get it right." I huffed at my feline pokemon. She didn't say anything to that, just climbed onto the bed and fell asleep at the foot of it. Treecko practically fell asleep once let out of his pokeball, so I set him down on the pillow.

"What do you want to do now?" Tecy asked me.

"Clothes shopping!" I smiled. My anime shirts and stuff was awesome and all, but I totally wanted something steampunk for Hoenn. Tecy seemed a little panicked by my outburst, glancing at the pokemon. They were still asleep.

"Okay, whatever." Tecy said, grabbing her Trainer card and a key card from her bag and shoving them into her pocket. "Whatever floats your boat."

"Forget about boats, let's do ships!" I laughed, Tecy chuckled slightly. I pocketed my key card and we left the Pokemon Center. We glanced around at the shops around Petalburg, searching for a boutique. Tecy was the first one to spot a clothes store, but after an hour of searching, I couldn't find anything steampunk. I frowned at my friend's success in finding nothing but plain T-shirts and jeans. "Don't you want to try something new?" I asked her.

She looked down at the several T-shirts and pairs of jeans folded in her arms and frowned. "This is all I can find that I like." _Picky, picky._ I glanced around the store, other than the plain T-shirts Tecy picked out, most of the clothes were the modern hipster style clothes, which was _not_ her style. As much as it bothers me, Tecy's more of a jeans-and-T-shirt girl than anything else. I'm gonna have to drag that out of her, get her into something gothic. Maybe Lolita.

"Okay, whatever. I'm ready to go when you are." I shrugged and Tecy bought her stuff by using the trainer card she had since. I guess the trainer card is an ID card as well as a debit card. Cool.

"So, where do you want to go next?"

"The pokemon gym!" I smiled.

"But our pokemon are at the Pokemon Center. Shouldn't we get them first?" I gave her a "no doy" look and we headed back to the Pokemon Center. We grabbed our pokemon- who were all completely healed- and headed over to the gym.

The pokemon gym was a huge, one story building with a symbol of the pokemon badge as its sign. I stepped up to the building, but the gym clerk at the front of the building told us that we had to have four other badges before you can attempt to battle Norman, the gym leader. "Well, that's a little disappointing." I sighed.

"You already knew this was the fifth gym, Kali. It's not that unexpected." Tecy frowned, "I guess we should head over to Rustboro; that's where the first gym is." I nodded and we continued on our journey. Tecy remembered at the last moment that we had to return the card keys to the Pokemon Center and she ran off to take care of that.

"Hello there, Trainer." Someone behind me greeted. I turned to face the speaker: a fat man, probably in his late twenties, wearing a baby blue hawaiian shirt and khaki bermuda shorts walked up to me. "The name's Scott and I travel the Hoenn region looking for talented trainers. I can see already that you have potential. Do you have a PokeNav?" I shook my head, Scott frowned. "Oh, well. We'll run into each other sometime, I'm sure." He walked off into the route and Tecy came back just then, huffing and puffing.

"Wh-who was that?" She asked, leaning backward with her face towards the sky.

"Said his name was Scott" I replied, trying to think of what he said. I wasn't paying that much attention "and I don't remember what he wanted."

"Ah. Well, whatever." Tecy panted. "Give me a second and we can keep going." She took a few long breaths before started walking again down the path to Rustboro.

The next route was a beach with a patch of tall grass a little way away from the sand. A dock and a house were standing on the edge of the beach, close to a forest. "That must be Petalburg Woods." Tecy observed, walking up to the bunch of trees. _Captain Obvious strikes again._ We walked into Petalburg woods and trained a little there, the pokemon here were a little bigger than the pokemon who lived in the routes between Petalburg and Littleroot, but Treecko blew through them like no man's business.

While we were training, a man came up and asked us, "Have you seen Shroomish? I love that Pokémon."

"Yeah, I'm battling one right now." Tecy said to the man. Charmander had just dodged a stun spore attack and was coming in with his claws, probably scratch. "If you get a pokeball ready, Charmander might let you catch it." The man nodded and took out a blue pokeball with red marks at the top. He threw the pokeball at the Shroomish, the shroomish disappeared into it. Shook once... Twice... Three times... _Click._

"Thank you very much, miss." The man smiled, taking the pokeball back. "I need to get back to Rustboro now."

"Hold on, there!" Another man in a blue and black striped shirt, marking him as a team Aqua grunt, ran up, grabbed the man by his shirt collar and demanded, "Give me the Devon goods!"

"Yeah, I don't think so." Tecy said, pushing past the first man to sock the grunt it the jaw. The Aqua grunt stumbled back a few steps, rubbing the area of impact, and glared at Tecy.

"You're going to regret that, missy." The aqua grunt growled. "Go, Poochyena!" A black puppy pokemon came out of a pokeball that the grunt threw.

"Let's do this, Tecy." I said to my friend. She nodded "Treecko, I choose you!" I shouted and pointed at the poochyena. My tree frog pokemon leaped out a foot in front of me.

"Charmander!" Tecy shouted and Charmander did the same with her.

"Hey, whoa! That's not fair!" Another aqua grunt shouted at us and joined his comrade in a battle. "Let's even the odds. Go, Carvanha!" A blue, red, and gold piranha-like pokemon came out of this other grunt's pokeball. Some how, the pokemon was swimming in mid air and had no troubles attacking. He bore his teeth menacingly.  
>"Charmander, attack Poochyena. Burn him then slash at the burn." Tecy ordered. Her fire lizard pokemon blew a number of flames at the poochyena; it had no way of dodging and the flames made the black pokemon's fur, well, blacker. Without any delay, Charmander ran out at the burned puppy pokemon and, with a shining claw, slashed down at him. The pokemon dropped onto its side, asleep. Charmander then retreated in an attempt to get away from the Carvanha. I was so busy watching Charmander take down Poochyena, I almost forgot that I was a part of this battle too.<p>

"Treecko..." _Crap, what's his move set?_ I shouted out the first grass-type attack that I knew of "Use leaf blade!" my tree frog pokemon hesitated for a moment before leaping out at the fish pokemon and threw out leaves in a blade formation at it. Carvanha bit Treecko just as it was pummelled by leaves, the water pokemon fainted and left Treecko with a couple bite marks on his arm. My pokemon came back to me, favoring his bitten arm.

"Crap! We're all out of pokemon!" The aqua grunts cried out in unison.

"We have to retreat for now." The first one said, taking his burnt poochyena and running off.

The second returned his pokemon to its pokeball and grinned at the man menacingly. "We have business in Rustboro anyway." Our trainer cards made a "ding" sound and, after checking them, meant that our victory money was already banked. Cool.

"Thank you for helping me." The man said, rubbing the back of his neck. He took out two of the blue pokeballs from his pocket and handed one to each of us. "These are called Great Balls. They're just like Pokeballs, but they're a little harder for pokemon to escape from, making catching pokemon easier."

"Thanks." Tecy smiled, taking the great ball and shoving it into her pokeball pouch. I did the same.

"Wait, did they mention business in Rustboro?" The man asked, looking in the direction they ran to. "OH NO! This is a crisis!" He bolted off, much faster than I imagined he could run. Tecy and I exchanged looks, shrugged, and ran after them as well.

**(A/N Tecy: Establishing some of the differences between my envisioned Pokemon World and the Pokemon Games. Also, it's just way easier having the Trainer Card be debit/ID, it just is.**

**Moving on, Team Aqua rears its ugly head. Lotsa fun, especially considering that mine and Kali's pokemon are a lot stronger than the Team Aqua grunts' pokemon.)**


	12. Chapter 3- Rustboro

We ran into a lot more tall grass and pokemon battles, so we lost track of the man we helped and the Team Aqua grunts. Treecko, Trouble, and Snorlax became much stronger, I noticed, by the time we reached the end of Petalburg Woods. They had scratches and bruises and puncture marks from poison stings, but still had plenty of energy. Tecy's pokemon were the same way. It was getting dark really fast, as was the temperature drop. Reminded me too much of a few days ago when we got lost at Camp Royale (though it should be Camp Rocket) and nearly froze to death. At least until Tecy let Charmander out. Still don't know why she hadn't done that before. Our group practically huddled around Charmander as we made our way into Rustboro. The pokemon center, even at night, was easy to spot. Like from Petalburg, the room was free and we spent the night there.

The sound of rustling around woke me up. Opening one eye, I could see that Tecy was busy getting ready for the day. I got up as well and did the same. Today, Tecy wore one of her new T-shirts, which I was surprised had a pokeball on it and was not just a plain red shirt. She was also wearing one of the new pairs of jeans which had a flame pattern on her back pockets. I put on a green tank-top and a brown low collared shirt as well as blue jeans and my black converse shoes. We packed up our things and left the room. Delicious aromas came from one of the open rooms and we discovered that, among the Pokemon Center's free services, breakfast was one of them. Different kinds of bagels, waffles, and toast with berries cooked into them lined one of the walls, cups for berry juice and Moomoo milk were on a table to the side. Another table had an assortment of berries. No eggs to be seen, which was fine by me. Tecy and I each took a plate for us and our pokemon and ate breakfast. "Havoc, don't take all the rawst berries." Tecy chastised her mudkip, who had jumped on the berry table and had stuffed its mouth with the bitter berry. I couldn't help but laugh. All the _Fullmetal Alchemist_ references with that name. Havoc swallowed everything in his mouth without difficulty and croaked something back at her. Tecy picked him off of the table with her free hand and sat down at a table. I grabbed the rest of my team's breakfast and sat down in the chair opposite her. Treecko went over to the berry table and took an armful of aspear berries and came back. He offered one to me and I took it. I took one bite and was surprised by how sour the berry was, but it was delicious all the same. I had to take a couple sips of pecha juice to ease the sour flavor of the berry. Treecko was happily munching on his other Aspear berries. Other trainers and their pokemon started filing into the room, many of them with fairly small pokemon. At least, fairly small compared to mine and Tecy's pokemon.

"Tec-chan, we're going to challenge the pokemon gym here after breakfast, yeah?" I asked my friend. She glanced at her pokemon, each of them nodded.

"Yep. I guess we are." She smiled.

"Yay!" I grinned and took another bite out of an oran berry bagel.

We finished breakfast and gave the card keys back to Nurse Joy before leaving the Pokemon Center. The whole town, as I could see in the daytime, screamed 'steampunk'. I grinned happily as we made our way over to a large building with a gym-badge sign. We entered the building and the gym clerk there told us that the gym was for rock-type pokemon. I glanced at Tecy.

"Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, and Steel all work well against rock type pokemon." She said. _I love having a friend who knows everything about pokemon. _"Normal, Fire, Poison, and Flying are bad against rock types." Tecy glanced down at Havoc. "So you're basically on your own here." The mudkip croaked happily as a response. With Snorlax and Trouble both being normal types, Treecko was also the only one I have who would be any good in this gym.

"You hear that, Treecko?" I asked my pokemon. "We're going to breeze past this gym!"

"Alright!"

We entered the gym, it was set up with different paths and walls that jutted out like rocks. Stairs up the walls were on either side of a single path that went under a bridge. Tecy glanced up at the first set of stairs and started for it. I followed her, guessing she knew what she was doing. We could see a couple trainers down below us. "Hey! You two!" A voice shouted. A little boy, about ten years old, ran up to us. "You gonna challenge the gym leader? Well, you have to go through me!" He took out two pokeballs, retreated a few paces and threw two pokeballs. "Go, Geodudes!" Two geodude popped out of the pokeballs. Tecy and I exchanged glances and nodded.

"Go, Havoc!"

"Go, Treecko!"

Our pokemon jumped out in front of us, facing the rock pokemon in front. Tecy smiled evilly. "Havoc, use water gun, aim for the face!" The mudkip nodded and leaped out at the closest geodude to him.

"Treecko, use leaf blade!" I commanded my pokemon. He again hesitated for a moment before leaping out at the other geodude and used its leaves in a blade form to swipe at it. It missed, and geodude slammed up against Treecko, which sent him sprawling a few feet. He came back to me, waiting for his next order.

"Remember, Kali. You don't have to give him one order at a time." Tecy told me. She glanced down at Havoc, who had also got hit by geodude. "Water gun again, use it whenever geodude gets close enough to ram into you." Havoc croaked something and leapt back into the fray, trying his best to follow his instructions. He still got rammed a couple times, though.

"Treecko, use razor leaf, try to get geodude trapped in a whirlwind of leaves."

"Whirlwind is a flying-type move." Tecy stated. I stuck my tongue out at her, showing how much I cared about technicalities. Still, Treecko tried to follow my instructions as well as he could. He jumped around and around geodude, flinging razor-sharp leaves at it each time he landed. The rock pokemon spun around and around, getting cut mercilessly by the leaves. After a moment, it fell over, asleep. Treecko jumped back over to me. Havoc leaped back to Tecy after a moment, the other geodude fainted as well. The kid brought his pokemon back into their pokeballs and said, grudgingly.

"Fine then. You can go through." Our Trainer cards _ding_ed again, signaling we received our victory money. Tecy and I started walking down the path once more, twisting and turning over ridges until we found a girl who was standing alone on a rocky platform.

"That must be Roxanne." Tecy said. _Gee, ya think? _"I'm surprised we only had to battle one kid though."

"Then don't be!" someone else shouted and ran up to us from the side. Another boy, again about ten years old. "If you wanna battle Roxanne, you have to prove you're strong enough to!"

"Okay. Fine." Tecy shrugged. The kid walked away a few paces and sent out an Onix and a Sandshrew. "Go, Havoc! Use water gun on sandshrew, same strategy as before." Havoc nodded and leapt out at the sand mouse pokemon and started buffeting it with massive amounts of water.

"Sandshrew isn't rock type, is it?" I asked.

"No, it's ground type." Tecy confirmed. "It's not uncommon for rock type trainers to accidentally get a ground type pokemon mixed in."

"Ah. Okay." I turned back to the battle. "Treecko, use leafblade on Onix!" Treecko hesitated for a moment before running up to the huge rock snake pokemon and start slashing at it with leaves that were made into a blade.

"Onix, use wrap!" The kid commanded his remaining pokemon, bringing sandshrew back. The onix, looking really peeved, wrapped its tail around Treecko's body and squeezed. Treecko closed one eye and cried out. I felt like I was being squeezed instead of Treecko, or at least my heart was. But I couldn't do anything to help him. Out of nowhere, a barrage of mud shot out at Onix. The rock pokemon, surprised, let go of Treecko and recoiled towards Havoc.

"Good, Havoc! Mudshot once more!" Tecy called out. I looked at Treecko who was holding to his sides with one eye closed. It was clear that he was in _a lot_ of pain.

"Treecko, come back." I called to my pokemon, trying hard not to sound choked up. He nodded and made his way over to me, wincing at every step. Finally he collapsed in my arms. "Are you okay?"

"Nnngh, I've had better days." Treecko said between clenched teeth. "I just need to rest for a moment, that's all."

"You got this, Tec-chan?" I asked my friend, looking up at her and seeing that she was paying attention to the battle at hand.

"Yeah. I got this." She replied, looking down at Treecko, concern written on her features. "How is he?"

"He's okay, just needs a break." I told her. Tecy pulled out a small spray-bottle device from her bag and handed it to me. "What's this?"

"Guy at the Pokemart said it's a potion." She explained "You spray some into a pokemon's mouth and it's supposed to heal them a little." Tecy then went back to where she was standing before, returning her focus to the battle. I sprayed some of the potion into Treecko's mouth and he swallowed it. Immediately both his eyes opened and he was no longer favoring his sides.

"Whoa... That worked really well." He smiled. "I'm ready for anything now!"

I smiled then winked at my pokemon. "Great, now why don't you give that Onix some payback?" He nodded and ran back out into the fray. His hands were wrapped up in some sort of dark energy and he started to pummel the Onix with his fists.

"Havoc, come back. Let Treecko handle this." Tecy told her pokemon. The mudkip retreated back to her and watched the rest of the battle with her. Treecko kept punching at Onix, until, eventually, the pokemon fell down in a heap, fainted.

The kid brought his pokemon back. "You're strong enough to beat me, but the gym leader is even stronger." Our trainer cards _ding_ed once more. That ding was getting annoying. The kid went back into the place he came out of to challenge us and we continued to Roxanne. She watched us approach and then stepped off of the platform to meet us.

"I'm Roxanne." _We know._ "I may not be the strongest trainer in the league, but I'm still tough to beat. Prepare yourselves." She took a few steps back and sent out two geodude. Tecy and I sent out Havoc and Treecko. I pulled out my Itouch and started playing some battle music. Roxanne lifted an eyebrow at this, then shrugged. "Geodudes, tackle."

"Havoc, mudshot then clean him up with watergun!" Tecy called to her pokemon.

"Treecko, leafblade!" Treecko didn't hesitate to obey, he made a sword out of leaves and started swinging it at geodude. _Leaf blade. Hah, I get it... But is that really how it works?_ Geodude fainted after the second strike, the blade came apart and leaves fell to the floor. Treecko hurried back over to me. Havoc was busy spouting mud at geodude; it seemed to do a decent amount of damage, but 'cleaning' it did so much more. The pokemon fell down after the barrage of water and Havoc ran back to Tecy's side.

"Tch. You two are doing pretty well." Roxanne said, bringing her two geodude back. Taking out her last two pokeballs she smiled. "But don't get your hopes up just yet. Nosepass! Onix!" She shouted her pokemon's names and threw the pokeballs into the air, releasing the pokemon inside. Nosepass looked exactly like it does in the games, a blue rock with a big red rock on it that looked like a huge nose.

"Havoc can take down Onix." Tecy said to me. I nodded. "Havoc, mudshot and watergun!"

"Treecko, use leafblade on Nosepass!"

"Onix, Rock throw! Nosepass, Rock tomb!"

The pokemon clashed: Onix threw itself into the ceiling and caused rocks to fall down on Havoc. The mudkip shook the rubble off and heaved out a lot of mud onto the big pokemon. The onix was obviously hurt bad by the mud and, before he could retreat back to Roxanne, Havoc was spitting water at it. The large rock pokemon fell over, fainted, and Roxanne called it back. Treecko, in the meanwhile, had made another sword with leaves and started swinging it at Nosepass. It hit five times, but Nosepass wasn't finished yet. The blue rock pokemon jumped up and down, causing rocks from above to land on and around him. Treecko found his way out and, though battered and bruised, could still stand. My tree frog pokemon limped back over to me. "I could use a bit more of that potion." He said, trying his best to stay standing. I nodded and sprayed more of the medicine into his mouth. Treecko swallowed and smiled, already he looked rejuvenated. Roxanne was spraying potion into Nosepass's mouth as well. The rock pokemon came back into the battlefield as if nothing had happened. Treecko did as well.

"Treecko, leafblade again!"

"Nosepass, Rock tomb!"

"Do you have this or do you need Havoc to help out?" Tecy asked me. I nodded to her. " 'Yes, have Havoc help out' or 'yes, you got this'?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Okaaay... Havoc, assist Treecko!" Havoc nodded and ran over to Treecko, who already had his leaf sword in hand. Treecko stood on the mudkip's back and Havoc charged at Nosepass, Treecko slashing out. After four hits, the large rock pokemon fell over, fainted. The grass sword Treecko had fell apart and he stepped off of Havoc. The mudkip ran over to Tecy and Treecko made his way back over to me. I turned the battle music off before letting Treecko climb onto my shoulders.

"A loss is a loss." Roxanne sighed as she made her way over to us. The gym leader handed both Tecy and I a sticker in the shape of a badge. "This is the Stone badge, it will allow you access to Dewford gym, also" She took out two TMs from her bag and handed them to us. "this contains Rock Tomb. You've seen what it does, so I shouldn't have to explain it." Our Trainer cards dinged again. Roxanne stepped back up to her platform and used some spiky-looking items on her pokemon as we left. Tecy stuck her badge onto her trainer card and showed it to the kids who tried to challenge us on our way out.

**(A/N Tecy: Not much to talk about here except that I really tried to keep most of the dialogue the same, for the gym leader at least. I'm pretty sure that the trainers in the gym had other pokemon, but I was too lazy to get my Emerald out and find out exactly so, that's what you guys get. Still avoiding god-modding and Treecko doesn't know Leaf Blade yet, at least not what it _really _is.)**


	13. Chapter 4- Team Aqua

As we left the gym and started walking back to the Pokemon Center, we saw the man we helped chasing two Team Aqua grunts. "Let's see what's going on," I grinned at Tecy. She nodded but didn't return the grin. The man was leaning over, panting, right in front of the route. "What's up?" I asked him. He looked up at us, still panting.

"Those men took the Devon goods, I was supposed to take them to Slateport but now..." He huffed and groaned. "If I don't get those back I'll get fired for sure!"

"Don't worry, we'll help." Tecy reassured him. "Where did those thugs get to?" The man pointed to the route. I grabbed Tecy's wrist and pulled her away from the town. "You don't have to pull me." Tecy frowned, wrenching her wrist from my grasp, "It's not like I wasn't planning to find those Aqua grunts anyway."

"I know." I stated, "It's just more fun to kidnap you." Tecy rolled her eyes.

We battled a couple trainers while looking for the Team Aqua grunts. Finally we ended up at the entrance to a cave where an old man with a long white beard was standing right outside. He saw us approach and walked up to us.

"Someone took my precious Peeko and went into that tunnel." The man told us, pointing to the tunnel. "I'd get him back myself, but I don't have any pokemon other than Peeko. Will you girls please help?"

"We'll get him back for you, Sir." I told him with a smile; Tecy nodded in agreement.

We entered the tunnel and I couldn't help but grin started to sing a particular ditty. After a moment Tecy laughed and joined in. "Secret Tunnel! Secret Tunnel! Through the mountain! Secret, secret, secret, secret Tunnel!" I then exclaimed. "Hey, I remember the rest of the song!" Tecy and I sang in unison at a very low key "and Died." The Team Aqua grunts were right up ahead, a huge rock wall blocked their exit.

"Aww, now what? We can't get these goods to the boss now!" One of them groaned.

"We could fly on this bird." The other offered, holding up a wingull by its wings. The bird pokemon struggled against the grunt, but to no avail.

"In a cave? No way, besides, if we leave then the cops will find us!"

"Forget the cops, how about us?" I laughed. The two goons turned around to face us, one of them recognized me and groaned.

"Oh, no. Not YOU again!"

Tecy and I laughed. "Sorry, boys. It _is_ us again." Tecy said with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes. "Now, you could either give us the bird and theDevon goods and we _might_ let you out of here with your pokemon still conscious."

"No way! We got stronger from our last battle! Go Poochyena!" The grunt holding a suitcase shouted, throwing a pokeball with his spare hand. The puppy pokemon was, indeed, bigger than it was before. Tecy smirked and sent out Charmander. The little fire pokemon grinned evilly and growled; poochyena lowered its head, intimidated, he remembered Charmander and remembered him well. The second grunt, trying to hold onto the struggling wingull with one arm, threw out his Carvanha. I brought Trouble out.

"Oh-ho! This is going to be fun." She laughed sinisterly, knowing that I was letting her battle.

"Yeah, knock your socks off." I told her. "Whatever you think is necessary, just get Carvanha out of the way first."

"Whatever." Trouble leaped out and took the carvanha down and into the rock floor, growling with every bit of malice she had. Carvanha; however, was not impressed or intimidated. That just made Trouble want to kill him even more.

"Poochyena, use bite!"

"Carvanha, use crunch!"

"Charmander" Tecy grinned at her pokemon. "You know what to do." The fire lizard nodded and grinned as well. The poochyena tried to run away, but this is a trainer battle and, hey, you can't run from a trainer battle! Charmander caught up to it and set the pooch on fire. The pokemon ran in circles, panicking. It knocked into Trouble, which got some of her fur burnt.

"Hey! Watch it, idiot!" Trouble growled, ignoring the piranha pokemon that just attached itself to her tail. She ran up to the flaming poochyena and flicked her tail, flinging the water pokemon onto it. The carvanha spat out some water which, not only put the fire out, but also caused the poochyena to faint. The carvanha got up and started moving towards charmander. Tecy bit her lip; even _I_ knew this type match-up was not good.

"Charmander, use slash." She told her pokemon. I could see that she wasn't sure that was the best choice to make. The fire lizard started running towards Carvanha, one of his claws shining. The piranha pokemon swam in place and spat out a large bubble of water which exploded on impact. The fire lizard fell onto one knee, eye closed and panting heavily, slash had failed and charmander was wet. Not a good combination. Tecy bit her lip more, and I wasn't sure if it was bleeding. Turning back to the battle, the carvanha readied for another attack when Trouble blocked the way, taking the second watergun attack on herself. Dripping wet she growled.

"_I'm_ your opponent, fool." Her teeth sparked with electricity and she bit down on the side of the pokemon, giving it a painful electric shock. The carvanha fainted. Battle over and won, she glanced behind her at Tecy. "Idiot, why did you let your own pokemon get into danger like that?"

"She can't understand you, Trouble." I reminded my pokemon, slightly thankful for that truth.

"I think I got the message." Tecy said, letting out a sigh. She walked over to Charmander and picked him up, cradling him in her arms. "That _was_ really stupid." She glanced down at her pokemon. "Sorry." He growled something. Trouble trod back over to me and I looked up at the Team Aqua grunts. Tecy walked over to where I was, glaring up at the pirates.

"You've been beat, now hand over the hostage and the devon goods." I told them, holding a hand out. They grudgingly brought their pokemon back, let go of the wingull, and handed me the suitcase. The goons then ran off and out of the cave, yelling empty threats. Tecy, still holding onto her unconscious pokemon, started to walk towards the exit when the old man from outside hurried up to us.

"I saw those two thugs leave. Is Peeko here?" The wingull squawked in reply. "Oh, there you are, Peeko!" The old man hugged the bird pokemon, who seemed to smile. The pokemon hopped onto the man's shoulder as he turned to face Tecy and me. "Thank you so much for rescuing Peeko. If there's anything you need, stop by the house on the dock near Petalburg." He looked at his pokemon. "Ready to go?" the bird squawked once more and they left the cave. We followed after him; the sun was high in the sky when we came out of the cave.

"I need to stop by the pokemon center." Tecy announced, motioning to Charmander.

"That's cool. I'm going to go shopping, and maybe do some training." I told her. She nodded and we started walking back to Rustboro. Carrying the suitcase, I was more than curious of what was inside, though it wasn't any of my business. The man we told we would help was waiting for us where we left him, seeing the suitcase he ran up to us.

"You got it back! Oh, thank you! Here." The man handed us two great balls each. "If you two don't mind, could you come with me for a moment?" We said we didn't mind and the man led us to a large corporation building. "You see, I work for a company that creates new kinds of pokeballs as well as PokeNavs and apps for the PokeNav, and a couple other things." He explained. "I told my boss about what you did for me in Petalburg woods, and I told him what you offered to do just now and he wanted to meet with you." We entered the building and he led us up the stairs to the third floor. "Wait here for a second." He walked over to a man behind a desk, the name tag on it read "Mr. Stone."

"You know this is your future father-in-law, right?" Tecy whispered over to me, knowing that I was- and am- a huge Steven Stone fangirl. I blushed vividly and nudged her in the side and told her to shut her face. "What? I like having my face open, lets my brain fall out." She then gave me a creepy grin. She returned to her normal expression when the man came back.

"Our president will see you now." He said then, leading us over to the desk, introduced us to Mr. Stone before leaving. Mr. Stone had grey hair, icy blue eyes, and wore a rich navy blue suit with a tie that had a pattern that made it look like it was made out of stainless steel. We were invited to sit down in the two chairs in front of the desk. Tecy did so, setting her sleeping pokemon in her lap; I stayed standing but leaned against the back of the empty chair.

"I understand you two saved one of my workers from team aqua twice." He said, closing his hands and setting them on the desk. "I was wondering if you could deliver that" he pointed to the suitcase we took back from Team Aqua "to Captain Stern in Slateport. Of course, you won't be doing it for nothing. And also" He took out an envelope from the desk and handed it to me. "could you take this to my son? He should be somewhere in Dewford."

"Yeah, sure." I agreed, knowing that it'd be worthwhile to do it. From the games, when you delivered the letter and the goods and return to Devon Corp, Mr. Stone gives you the Exp. Share. Pulling out a drawer, he picked up and handed us both a bulky touch-screen phone.

"These are PokeNavs, at least the most recent development of them. It has match call, which shows who you've registered and if they would like a rematch with you, the Hoenn town map, which shows you the entire region of Hoenn at the push of a button. There's also a new feature on these that plays music from the internet." He scratched his head. "Although, because it is so new, we don't know how well it will work. Chances are, there will be a couple bugs and glitches with it. Just be sure to update it when it asks to." We nodded in unison, checking out the different apps on the PokeNav. "Do you have any questions?"

"Just one." Tecy said, checking out the detailed town map. "On this, it says that Dewford is an island. How are we supposed to get there?"

"There's an old sailor by the name of Captain Briney. If you tell him Mr. Stone sent you to go to Dewford and Slateport, he'll give you a ride on his boat." Mr. Stone explained. He glanced over at me and I took the suitcase.

"Don't worry, sir. We'll get the goods to Capt. Stern and deliver the letter for you." I grinned with a salute. Tecy rolled her eyes, put Charmander in his pokeball, and got up. We left the corporate building and started walking to the Pokemon Center. Tecy went inside while I started wandering around, looking for a clothes store. It took a little while, but I found one and was super happy that most of the clothes there were steampunk. I grabbed pretty much anything that would fit me and tried it on, after a long while of trying on clothes, I picked out five outfits that I liked the best and left the dressing room. Trouble came out of her pokeball and rolled her eyes at me.

"Seriously? Clothes shopping?" She asked in a condescending tone.

"Well, yeah. It's fun." I told her. "We could look for an outfit for you." I offered, already trying to see her in a steampunk outfit. Her ears flattened and she gave me a death glare.

"No."

"Aww, come on. I think you'd look cute in steampunk."

"I said no." Trouble growled. "I don't _want_ to be 'cute'."

"Too bad, you already are." I giggled, picking her up and cuddling her close, burying my face in the long tufts of fur.

"Let go of me." I did and set her back down on the ground. I walked over to a stand where bandanas were displayed, and glanced down at Trouble. Her ears flattened. "I know what you're thinking, and no."

"It's not an outfit. And bandannas are pretty cool."

"No. Just no." Despite her saying that she didn't want to try anything on, I took off a bandanna from the rack and held it up to her. She frowned but didn't do much else. I showed her the pattern. "Fine." She finally muttered, after taking a good look at it. I giggled and tied it around her neck, making sure it didn't choke her. The gear pattern on the bandana looked really nice on her. She didn't say anything about it, just kept her ears down and looking off to the side angrily.

We went over to the counter where I bought the clothes, then Trouble and I left for the route to the cave. We battled and trained the rest of the day and started heading back to the Pokemon Center when dusk broke. Tecy was waiting for me out front. "How long have you been out here for?"

"I just got out here." She replied. "I hope you don't mind, but I went training in Petalburg woods a little while ago and we just finished eating dinner when I saw you coming back. There's leftovers if you want some." Tecy pointed with her thumb towards the Pokemon Center.

"That sounds great right now." I smiled, hunger pangs starting to get to me. Tecy led the way to the room where three doggy bags were laid out on the table. I let my pokemon out and we started to eat the leftovers.

"When did Trouble get the bandanna?" Tecy asked, noticing the eevee's attire. Her ears flattened but she kept eating.

"We went clothes shopping earlier and I wanted to get something for her."

"It looks really good on you." Snorlax smiled, also noticing her bandanna. Trouble didn't say anything, but I could see the hint of a blush on her cheeks. Treecko was too busy stuffing his face with wacan berry slices to care. He didn't care much about clothes in general. We went to bed right after dinner, I didn't realize how tired I was until I hit the pillow and fell straight to sleep.

**(A/N Tecy: Still avoiding god-modding, even though I established that Charmander is anywhere between 3-7 levels stronger than they are. Thank Arceus that I'm not doing a Nuzlocke.**

**Menial things are menial and Kali gets some bonding time with Trouble. **

**Also, Snorlax. I love Kali's Snorlax. He's so much fun to write (though he doesn't get much screen time) and he's just plain adorable.)**


	14. Chapter 5- Dewford

I was still feeling groggy when I woke up. No one else was awake, but the sun was out and shining into the hotel room. And I was lucky enough to take the bed closest to the window. Any attempts I made to go back to sleep were in vain; finally I glanced at the clock: 9:37 AM. Giving up on sleep, I climbed out of bed and got dressed, remembering the steampunk outfits. I put on a white T-shirt and a bronze vest over that as well as bronze slacks with straps that covered the majority of the legs as well as brand new brown combat boots. Tecy was awake when I came out from the bathroom and she gave a once-over my outfit. "I'm guessing you didn't only get something for Trouble then."

"Ya think?" I laughed. "I'm totally going steampunk for Hoenn."

"I think I can tell." Tecy chuckled. She pulled out an outfit from her bag and moved past me to get into the bathroom. Treecko was digging through the doggy bags from last night, probably looking for what was left of the wacan berries. Snorlax and Trouble were waking up.

"Okay guys, let's go get breakfast." I called out to them. Treecko looked back at me, mouth full of the leftover food. "Or we could eat what's left. I don't care which."

Treecko swallowed what was left in his mouth. "I just finished up what was left over from last night." He said, closing the lid of the doggy bag and tossing it into the trash. "You guys go get breakfast, I already had mine."

"Couldn't wait for anyone else, could you?" Trouble asked, sounding meaner than necessary. Treecko looked off to the side in shame. "Well, whatever." Trouble nudged at the bandanna laying on the bedside table. I put it on her and she hopped down from the bed and started walking out the door. Snorlax followed her out and I brought up the rear.

Tecy and company came into the breakfast room with the crowd of people; whereas, me and my pokemon were already getting seconds. "Thanks for waiting up for me." She said right before taking a bite out of a bagel.

"You're welcome." I laughed, passing a plate of toast to Snorlax. "So, what's our plan for today?"

"We're going to see if we can get a ride to Dewford to hand off the letter to Steven." Tecy replied, giving me a teasing smile at the name of the Champion. I rolled my eyes and she continued, "After that we should check out the pokemon gym there. And, if there's still daylight, we'll head to Slateport and give the Devon goods to Capt. Stern."

"That's it?" I asked.

"Well, there's always training in the meanwhile." She shrugged. "I don't doubt it'll take a while before our pokemon will be ready to take on the second gym."

"What are you talking about? The gym here was a breeze."

"The pokemon at the second gym are going to be a lot stronger." Tecy frowned. "Plus, if the PokeNav is correct, the gym there is fighting type. Fighting type pokemon have less weaknesses than rock type does, _plus_ it's super effective against normal type pokemon. And by 'less weaknesses' I mean only flying and psychic are super effective against it."

"You know, sometimes I wish you didn't know everything about pokemon." I sighed and took a bite out of a slice of toast.

"I don't know everything." Tecy corrected, pulling out her PokeNav. "I'm going to need the 'guide to pokemon' app on this thing occasionally."

"There's a guide to pokemon on that?" I asked, leaning over the table to see her PokeNav.

"Yeah." She replied, showing me the app, the icon was a picture of a pokeball with a question mark on it.

"When are you going to use it?"

"I don't know _all_ the type match ups, plus this also shows the double-typed pokemon and what moves do a heck of a lot to them. And berries. Sometimes I like to look up berries and their effects."

I rolled my eyes and finished my breakfast. "I need to head back up to the room to pack up."

"Okay. I'll meet you in the lobby." Tecy said. I got up and left the room followed by Trouble and Snorlax.

Treecko was watching TV when we got back to the room, he turned it off and sat up on the bed. "So, are we going now?"

"Yep." I replied. "Just as soon as I pack up." I shoved my things into my bag and heaved it onto my back and picked up the suitcase. "Let's go." I scanned the room, asking, "Where's Tecy's stuff?"

"She packed up before she went down to breakfast." Treecko explained. "Said she wanted to get out of here right after eating." I nodded and Treecko slid off the bed and walked over to me. "Ready when you are."

Tecy and her pokemon were waiting for us in the Pokemon Center lobby; we handed the card keys back to Nurse Joy and left. We walked down the road towards Petalburg Woods, battling a couple of trainers in the route between Rustboro and the forest. It wouldn't take too long to get out of Petalburg woods, but we took the time to battle the pokemon nearby and get stronger. Once we made it out of the woods, we walked up to the house over by the dock. Out on the shorter grass were the old man and Peeko having a picnic breakfast. "Oh, hello girls." The old man greeted us, glancing up at the clear blue sky, "Lovely day, isn't it?"

"Yep." I said, turning up to look at the cloudless sky for a moment as well. "Do you know where we can find Captain Briney?"

"Of course!" The old man laughed. "Why, I am he!" _Oh. Doy. Hoenn games._ "Do you need to see me about something?"

"Uh, yeah. We need to deliver the Devon Goods to Captain Stern in Slateport and a letter to Steven Stone in Dewford." I explained.

"Ah, alright." Captain Briney said, standing up with some difficulty. "Dewford is closer, so you can take the letter to Steven first." The wingull pecked at an oran berry. "Anchors away, Peeko!" Peeko squawked and flew up to the boat at the end of the dock. We stepped onto the boat and sat down in the seats towards the back. Captain Briney sat down at the wheel and started up the boat. Tecy put Charmander back in his pokeball while Leah and Havoc sat in her lap. Snorlax had to go into his pokeball because he was too heavy for the boat. Treecko sat down in the seat next to me and Trouble sat down on the other side of him. The boat started to move and the engine sputtered and whirred as we sailed away from the dock. Tecy's PokeNav started to ring and she answered the match call.

"This is Tecy." She greeted. "Hello, Roxanne... Yeah... Okay, cool... See ya." Tecy hung up on the gym leader then pushed a couple buttons on the touch screen before putting it away. My PokeNav started to ring and I answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Kali?"

"Yep."

"This is Roxanne. I got word from Mr. Stone that you got a PokeNav, so I'm just calling to get you on match call. I'll let you know when I'm ready for a rematch."

"Okay then."

"Bye."

"Bye." I hung up and my PokeNav asked me if I wanted to record the number. I pressed 'yes' on the screen and Roxanne showed up on my match call list. Cool.

"I take it she called you too?" Tecy asked, shoving her PokeNav into her jean pocket, and I nodded in reply. An island came into the distance and the boat swerved around until it found a dock. The town of Dewford was pretty dinky, but the people who lived there looked like they sunbathed pretty much everyday, considering how dark their tans were.

"All ashore whose going ashore." Captain Briney said, turning to us. "You go take that letter to Steven. I'll be in the Pokemon Center when you're ready to head out to Slateport." Peeko flew over to the building with the red roof and the captain made his way over as well. Tecy and I climbed out of the boat and our pokemon jumped out after us.

"Want to go Challenge the Gym first or find Steven?" I asked my friend.

"Let's find Steven first," She answered. "We'll be able to train our pokemon in the cave, and we probably need to train a bit for this gym battle." I nodded and we ran to the Dewford cave. A couple fishermen challenged us to battle, but Tecy let Treecko take them out. We made it to the cave and it was lit up pretty well from the cave entrance. A man in the inside of the cave stopped us.

"It's pretty dark ahead." He said then handed us a TM. "This is called Flash, it'll make it easier to see what's ahead." We took the TMs, though I knew I wasn't ever going to use it. Tecy found two escape ropes right in front of the stairs going down. I shoved mine into my bag and continued down into the cave.

That guy wasn't kidding when he said it was dark down here. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face! I felt around for the wall, but felt nothing. "Kali? Are you there?" Tecy asked.

"Yeah. I'm here." I replied, looking for any source of light. There was none, up until a flash of light came and a small flame appeared. Tecy had let Charmander out of his pokeball, his tail lit the area around us up just enough for us to see vague shapes in the stone. "Good thinking."

"Hold on." Tecy pulled out a TM and stuck it onto Charmander's head. The pokemon closed his eyes as the disc spun and spun and spun then slowed to a stop. She took it off his head and put it back into her bag. "Charmander, use flash." The little lizard pokemon opened his mouth and, somehow, lit up the room so we could see perfectly.

"Isn't that a waste?" I asked.

"I'd rather not stumble around in the dark, thanks." Tecy replied. "Besides, it's not like there's a maximum amount of moves he can learn." I chuckled slightly, _that's how it is in the games._

Zubat and several different kinds of pokemon were stunned by the sudden appearance of light; we battled a lot of these pokemon before we made it to the different floors. We would occasionally find ourselves in dead-ends and have to turn back. After what seemed like a long time, we reached a room that was already lit to begin with.

**(A/N Tecy: This chapter is mostly just to get from point A to point B; point B is meeting Steven. I AM fond of Steven, but I'm not a fangirl. Personally, if I had to choose a champion/elite four, I'd choose Lance. Simply put: Dragon types and, specifically, Dragonite. The only time I've been able to raise a Dratini into Dragonite was last week on Pokemon X, and even then it was thanks to fine dining and the EXP Share. I can give Lance some serious credit for sticking with his pokemon for the length of time it takes to get Dragonite. Not to mention that in the Pokemon World, Dragon types are _really hard to train_ because it takes a long time for dragon types to like their trainer enough to obey them. Plus, you know, Lance is pretty hot, but that's just a bonus.)**


	15. Chapter 6- StevenDewford Gym

A man with silver hair stood at the far wall, looking at the stones there. He turned around as we approached and o_h my gosh_, Steven was _so_ much more attractive in real life than he was in the games. I could feel my cheeks go red as I looked in to his beautiful grey eyes.

"A-are you Steven?" I gulped, pretending not to know who he was.

"Yes, Why?" he asked.

"I-I have a letter for you," I replied, handing him the letter from Mr. Stone.

"Thank you, miss..."

"Kali," I mutter quietly.

"Kali... That's a pretty name." he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Thank you," I responded, looking down shyly. I heard Tecy cough behind me. "Oh, uh, this is my friend Tecy." I introduced her, my blush deepening.

"Hello." She deadpanned. Steven nodded to her in acknowledgement. He turned his attention back to me.

"Are you alright, miss Kali? You look flushed."

"Oh... Uh... I'm... I'm fine. Really." _Must. Not. Squeal._

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," I replied, trying to make my voice sound more confident as well as tone down my blush. I'm not sure either worked as a giggle sounded from behind me. I turned around to glare at Tecy.

"What?" Steven asked her.

"She _liiiiiiiikes_ you." Tecy giggled in a sing-song voice. One of the funny things about Tecy and I is that she's hyper when I'm trying to be serious and vise-verse.

"Shut it!" I growled at my friend. She gave me a big grin, completely unapologetic.

"Great _another_ fan girl," Steven groaned.

"Not exactly, I just think you're cute. That's all." Tecy had a hard time not to burst out laughing, and I really hoped Steven didn't notice that.

"Right..." His gaze was focused on Tecy and her antics. I frowned at her and she managed to collect herself. Steven then pulled out a PokeNav similar to mine and Tecy's "Do you think I could get your Pokenav number, I have the feeling we should keep in contact."

"Yeah, sure," I said, pulling out my PokeNav and the phones registered automatically. I walked over to Tecy and took a hold of her hand (she tried to wrench it away) before using one of the escape ropes. We reappeared at the entrance of the cave where I let go of her hand and started skipping towards the gym.

"Kali, wait up!" Tecy called behind me. I stopped where I was and waited for her to catch up. "Where are you heading off to?"

"The Pokemon Gym, obviously." I replied.

"Don't you think we should let our Pokemon rest before we take on the Gym?" She asked, motioning to the Pokemon Center on the beach. I shrugged and we headed to the Pokémon Center. We got a room and took a two hour nap with our pokemon before heading up to the gym.

The clerk stopped us and asked to see our one badge on our Trainer cards before telling us that the gym was for Fighting type pokemon. I looked over to Tecy expectantly. "Fighting is super effective against normal, dark, rock, and steel types." She replied in a monotone. "I think I mentioned this earlier."

"You might have, but I forgot." I shrugged. "It looks like Treecko's on his own here."

"That'd be wise, yes." Tecy nodded.

I readied Treecko's pokeball as we entered the gym; this place was as dark as the cave. I glanced over to where I expected Tecy to be, simply because the flame from Charmander's tail was the only light nearby. "Charmander, use flash." Tecy instructed. After a moment's pause he growled something. "You can't use Flash in here?" Charmander growled, apparently in the affirmative, and Tecy let out a long sigh. "Okay, so we're just going to stumble around here in the dark."

"What's wrong with Charmander?" I asked my friend.

"Nothing. Flash doesn't work here, for some reason or another." She brought Charmander back into his pokeball and then stumbled into me. "Sorry. I'm trying to find the wall."

"It's no big deal." I tried to find the wall with her when I felt something against my hand, I pressed it. It was the wall. "I found it."

"Same here. Follow it towards my voice." Tecy said, and I started to follow the wall towards her.

"Getting lost in the dark?" Someone asked, holding up a lantern and walking over to us. A girl wearing a karate uniform stepped up to us and tossed out a pokeball. A meditite came out. Tecy and I exchanged glances, finally she sent out Charmander.

"Charmander, blind the pokemon with flash and start slashing." Tecy instructed.

"Meditite, bide!"

I couldn't see the clash since I had to shield my eyes from the blinding light Charmander summoned. The meditite groaned and a _thump_ sounded. "Fine. You win." The karate girl handed Tecy the lantern, giving us just enough light that we could see a few paces in front of us. Our trainer cards _ding_ed as we resumed walking. We soon came to a crossroad in the building.

"Which way?" Tecy asked.

"Uh... Right." I responded, pointing to the right side hall. We walked down that path.

"Hello there. It's spooky here in the dark, isn't it?" A voice asked from the side.

"Hee-hee, it's unnerving when you can't see!" Another voice laughed from another direction. Two lanterns came closer to us. The laughing voice was another girl in karate gear, the first was a man who also wore a karate uniform. "Go, Meditite!"

"Go, Machop!"

"Havoc, let's do this!" Tecy called out to her mudkip, the small pokemon jumped out into the battlefield.

"Come on, Treecko!" I shouted, throwing the pokeball that contained my Hoenn starter. The green pokemon stood next to Havoc, facing the other two pokemon. Between the three lanterns, the battle was lit well enough that I didn't have too much trouble seeing. "Use leafblade on machop!"

"Havoc... Just our usual routine on meditite." Tecy instructed her pokemon. _What's their 'usual routine'?_

"Machop, Focus Energy."

"Meditite, detect!"

The pokemon clashed: meditite took a defensive position and deflected Havoc's initial attack, but was bombarded by mud and water gun; the pokemon quickly fainted. _Oooh, THAT'S their routine. _Treecko ran at Machop with its leaf sword. Machop closed its eyes and seemed to be concentrating on its own power. This concentration was quickly finished as Treecko slashed downwards with its sword. The fighting type pokemon fell with a thud after one strike. The two other trainers brought their pokemon back. "Well, so much for trying to scare you." The man sighed and exchanged the two lanterns. The one he gave us had a brighter setting, making everything within a few feet completely clear.

Tecy and I back-tracked to the crossroad and took the left path, continuing down it and taking a turn up. We came to another crossroad; I was going to suggest going right again, but Tecy had already started walking to the left. "Tec-child! Where are you going?" I pouted, making my lower lip quiver.

"I found the gym leader." Tecy replied, she glanced back at me then groaned. "Don't _look_ at me like that!" I stopped and looked past her, a man was standing on a wrestling ring step, looking directly at us, expecting us to approach him.

"I'm Brawly! Dewford's gym leader." The man introduced. "I've been churned in the rough waves of these parts, and I've grown tough in the pitch-dark cave!" He pulled out two pokeballs. "So you want to challenge me? Let me see what you're made of!" Brawly sent out Machop and Meditite. Tecy sent out Charmander and I sent out Treecko. "Machop, bulk up! Meditite, detect!"

"Charmander, flash then fire spin Meditite!" Tecy ordered.

"Treecko, leafblade machop!"

Meditite protected itself from being blinded by Charmander's flash, but it was vulnerable to its wheel of flame. Fire surrounded the pokemon on all sides, trapping it in a vortex of flame. Treecko ran at Machop, who had taken a deep breath and was concentrating on the battle. My pokemon brandished its sword made of leaves and struck out at Machop, the first two strikes missed and the other three didn't seem to do much. Meditite tried to retreat from the flame wheel, but got hurt by the fire. "Okay, Fire punch, charmander!" Tecy commanded, "Your target is still meditite."

"Leafblade again, Treecko!"

"Detect, Meditite! Machop, vital throw!"

Tecy gasped at the last mentioned move, and she bit her lip. _Uh-oh. That can't be good._ Treecko ran out at Machop with his sword of leaves, swiping at the fighting type pokemon. Machop had an evil glimmer in his eye, and he took all the hits with a smile. I glanced over at Tecy, who was staring at my pokemon with an expression of inevitable horror. Charmander and Meditite were practically ignored by us as machop's fist started to shine and came hurtling towards Treecko, hitting him square in the gut. My starter was flung into my arms, and the impact _hurt_. Treecko's eyes fluttered open, his breathing was desperately shallow. "Treecko!" I gasped. "Are you okay?" No response, he gave me an apologetic look before he fell asleep. _Fainted._ I stared up at Tecy, she was trying to pay attention to her pokemon and gave him another order. I brought Treecko back into his pokeball and sent out Trouble. The eevee ran up to the machop with murder glimmering in her eyes. Somehow, this intimidated the machop, making him take a couple steps back. "Trouble, payback!"

"Charmander, flash then fire punch!" Tecy instructed.

"Machop, vital throw. Meditite, detect." Brawley commanded his pokemon. I gritted my teeth. _That _move again.

Trouble started to glow black as she came hurtling towards machop, knocking him back a few steps. The machop's fist started to shine once more, I felt a pit in my stomach as it was unleashed at Trouble. "NO!" I cried out. A bright flash of light appeared and I couldn't tell what had happened until the light dimmed down. Trouble was bracing herself for the attack, but charmander stood between her and the Machop (who was a few feet off to the left). Vital throw had missed both our pokemon. Tears started to well up in my eyes, not only was Trouble spared for the moment, Charmander was _so freaking cute_ when he played hero.

"Alright, Charmander!" Tecy cheered. The little fire pokemon roared something and his fist became engulfed in fire, he bolted at the fighting type pokemon and punched him in the gut. The machop stumbled a few steps and struggled to stay up for a moment, then fell with a thud. _Good riddance._ Brawly brought his pokemon back then sent out a Makuhita.

"Makuhita, bulk up. Meditite, focus punch!"

"I'll take care of Makuhita." Tecy stated. "Make sure Trouble causes Meditite to lose its focus."

"Can do." I smiled. "Trouble, take down Meditite!"

"Charmander, flash and... Let's use ember on Makuhita." My friend instructed her pokemon. Her pokemon nodded and another blinding flash of light erupted from the small fire-type pokemon. While said light was still in use, Trouble took the time to take the Meditite to the ground, pinning it down to the ground. She was hurt only a little, and Meditite fainted. Brawly brought back his second fainted pokemon, and didn't send out a fourth. _Okay, so only three pokemon. That's good._ Charmander spat out a small flame at the remaining fighting-type pokemon. The Makuhita sidestepped just in time, causing the attack to miss. "Flash and Fire punch!"

"Trouble, use take down and bite!"

"Dark isn't very effective against Fighting." Tecy whispered over to me. "Fighting is super effective against Dark."

"And you tell me this _now_?" I asked her. She simply nodded and turned her attention back to the battle. Apparently Brawly had already made his command, as the pokemon were battling. A blinding flash of light appeared just as I turned to face the battle, causing me to blink hard a couple times as my eyes tried to adjust from the light back to the dark. Charmander had just finished punching Makuhita in the gut with a fire punch, which caused a burn. Trouble then took the makuhita down to the floor and bit its arm as it tried to attack her. Makuhita hit her in the head with his free hand, throwing Trouble off him. Makuhita came down on her once more before Charmander got in the way again, blocking Makuhita from hurting Trouble more. My eevee was looking up at Charmander, though, surprisingly, she didn't seem angry with him. _Awwwwwwwwwwww that's SO CUTE!_ I held my fists up to my mouth, barely containing a squeal. Tecy gave me a confused look and ordered her charmander to slash out at Makuhita. "Trouble, come back here for a moment." The eevee made her way back over to me, her mood seemed to drop as she came closer to me.

"_What_ is it?" She hissed. Apparently she didn't like being taken away from her boyfriend. Trouble glanced off to the side. "It's not like that, Kali."

"Oh, of course it is." I giggled. She glared up at me. I took out the potion and sprayed some into her mouth. She swallowed and immediately went back to the battlefield, ending any more conversation for that moment.

"What was that about?" Tecy whispered to me, turning her attention away from the gym battle for the moment.

"Oh come on, Tec-chan! Don't tell me you're not seeing this as well." She gave me a confused, then realized what I was talking about. Tecy chuckled and waved it off.

"No, no. It wouldn't work, they aren't in the same egg group."

"Egg-_what?_" I'm pretty sure that wasn't a Sonic reference.

"Egg group." Tecy restated, seeing my confusion she sighed. "Basically it means they can't breed."

"Awwww, I still totally ship it." I laughed.

"Grrr. Just give me my freaking order already!" Trouble spat from below. She stared at me with hating eyes. I looked back up at the battlefield, Makuhita was getting a dose of potion, but it came from an orange bottle instead of a blue one. Probably a super potion.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I glanced up at Tecy. "What's effective against Fighting?"

"Psychic and Flying." She replied. "But ghost would also work, considering that Fighting and Normal type moves don't affect it."

"Ooookay. So, trouble, know any psychic type moves?"

"Does it _look_ like I do?" Trouble hissed, obviously in the negative. I'm not sure if she's angry about being shipped or if it's just because she hates me.

"Sheesh, sorry." I glanced up at the battlefield, Charmander and Makuhita were starting to wrestle, Charmander has his claws on fire, which made it hard for Makuhita to attack. Punching with burnt fists probably hurts a ton. "Hey, Tecy." My friend glanced over to me. "Is there a move that ups the attack of a pokemon that hates you?"

"Uh, yeah. Frustration, though I think it can only be learned by TM."

"Nah. I know it." Trouble said, holding her head high.

"Okay then, Trouble. Use frustration."

Well, the least I can say about what happened next was that Makuhita was curb-stomped. My eevee walked straight up to Makuhita, her body starting to shine with a black light and a lust for blood growing with each step. Charmander got away from Makuhita and took a few steps away from Trouble as she unleashed all her frustrations onto the fighting-type pokemon. Even at almost full health, Makuhita was on the ground asleep before Trouble was through. The poor pokemon looked almost dead when she had finished, and afterward, Trouble finally smiled. And it wasn't a "I'm going to kill someone painfully" smile (though it was debatable that she already had), it was a cute and sincere smile. I giggled as she trotted over to charmander and gave him a hug. Also, Tecy wasn't kidding about Charmander being like Romano. This pokemon was redder than a tomato afterwards. _D'__AWWWWWW SOOOO CUTE!_ Trouble then trotted over to me, her expression flattened, but it was clear that she had let her anger drain quite a bit. I brought her back into her pokeball as Brawly walked up to us. "Very good, you two." He handed us each a sticker badge in the shape of a boxing glove. "This is the knuckle badge" I caught a glimpse of a snigger from Tecy "It allows you to gain entrance into the next gym- which is in Mauville." He pulled out two TMs from his bag. "Also, this TM contains Bulk Up, it raises your pokemon's ability to block attacks and also makes them a little stronger." Tecy and I thanked the gym leader before leaving the building.

**(A/N Tecy: If it isn't clear enough- Kali's a Steven fangirl (I think that was mentioned in Chapter 4 or something) and (spoilers) Steven kinda becomes our Brock. That is, if Brock was the champion of Hoenn, raised Steel type pokemon, and had to leave pretty often for Elite Four business (end of spoilers).**

**I'm a HUGE Sonic the Hedgehog fan, so every Sonic reference will make me happy. Also moves like Supersonic, Sonic boom, and Shadow ball will also make me happy. **

**Shipping is a part of Fanfiction, isn't it? SO LET'S SHIP THEM ALL! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ... I'm kidding... ... maybe...)**


	16. Chapter 7- Team Rocket Returns

It was already dark in the sky when we left the gym, but, thankfully, it wasn't cold out. A soft breeze came from the ocean, instantly relaxing both Tecy and myself from the stressful Gym battle. Trouble shook in her pokeball; upon letting her out, the eevee's ears lifted as she gazed at the night sky. Taking in a deep breath, she bounded off onto the beach, playing in the sand.

"I guess she's a night owl." Tecy chuckled. "Either that or using frustration has put her in a really good mood." I just watched Trouble play in the sand, smiling at how cute she was right now, and also how unlike she usually is. "Now would be as good as any time to get closer to her... Or you could come with me to the Pokemon Center and heal Treecko."

_Oh, yeah, Treecko. I almost forgot._ "I'm gonna play with Trouble a bit." I replied, pulling out Treecko's pokeball. "Do you mind healing Treecko for me?"

"Yeah, that's fine." My friend nodded, taking Treecko's pokeball, she walked away towards the red roofed building while I made my way down to the beach. I kicked off my shoes and socks and let my feet sink into the cooling sand. Trouble glanced up as I came closer, she tried to ignore me as I approached.

"What is it, Kali?" She finally asked, trying to make her voice as serious as it usually is, but it was forced.

"I just want to play with you, that's all. You never seem to be in the mood for it."

"Well..." She sighed and turned to face me. "Do you take_ anything_ seriously?"

"Yeah, of course." I scoffed. "I just don't take _everything_ seriously." Trouble glanced off and into the waves, which were rising onto the bank. "Come on, let's chase waves." I offered, hurrying off to where the waves crashed into the sand, and leaping up in shock as the freezing cold water touched my bare toes. Trouble chuckled and joined me. We played at the beach until I flopped down on the sand and finally realized how tired I was. Trouble did the same, her paws soaked from the cold salt water. She climbed onto me and laid down on my stomach. The cold water started to freeze the skin underneath, but I was too exhausted to care.

"Don't take this wrong. I'm not cuddling up to you, I'm just drying my paws." Trouble growled at me. I laughed, _yeah, sure. You're totally cuddling with me._

"Well, that was fun," I breathed, sitting up. Trouble climbed off my stomach and we made our way to the Pokemon Center. When we reached the room where Tecy was, we found out that it was 2:30 in the morning. As silently as possible, I let Snorlax out of his pokeball and laid on top of my teddy bear pokemon. He was fast asleep, even still, he put a large paw over my back, which covered most of me. I fell asleep pretty quickly.

I woke up and looked at the clock, it was almost noon. Tecy and her pokemon were nowhere to be seen, but a paper with the words "Went training in Dewford Cave. Come meet us there" were scrawled out. Treecko was up and wandering around in the room, he looked up at me cheerfully when he saw I was up. "Good morning, Kali!" He greeted happily.

"Morning, Treecko!" I giggled. "Ready to go training?"

"Ready when you are!"

"I might as well be ready." Trouble grumbled, climbing out of bed. Snorlax was still asleep, so I put him into his pokeball. I got dressed and ready for the day, packed up, and hurried out of the Pokemon Center, leaving my card key with Nurse Joy. Treecko, Trouble, and I ran to Dewford Cave where we met up with Tecy and her pokemon, they were all a great deal bigger than before. "Aww, did I miss training?" I asked, huffing and puffing.

"Yeah, you kinda did." Tecy said, scratching the back of her neck sheepishly. "I figured we could take today off and just train, since I didn't know when you were going to get up."

"Oh. Okay. I guess that works." I smiled.

"By the way..." Tecy started fishing into her bag and pulled out a TM. "I met up with Steven, I told him you were sleeping in so he asked me to give you this. He said it's Steel Wing and that it's his favorite move." I took the TM and shoved it into my bag. "We're going to run to the Pokemart for some super potions and the like, do you need us to grab anything while we're there?"

"Just the same for me, thanks." I replied with a smile. Tecy nodded and she and her group started back for Dewford Town. Me and my pokemanz ran inside the cave, past the guy who gave us Flash, and into the darkness of the tunnel, except it wasn't dark, strange enough.

"Team Rocket has no business here in Hoenn." I heard Steven say from inside the cave. "Go back to Kanto."

"Look, kid, we're just trying to find some runaways, that's all. We'll be out of Hoenn before you know it." Another man said, probably a Team Rocket grunt that just got his trash kicked by the champion of Hoenn. I sniggered, how I wanted to see that battle.

"I'm _not_ a kid." Steven frowned. "Get out of Hoenn and don't come back!" A pokemon's roar followed by footsteps scampering towards me made me panic slightly, I found shelter behind a rock and watched as two Team Rocket grunts ran out of the tunnel. I stood up once I realized they didn't notice me. "How long have you been here, Kali?" I whipped my head around to see Steven addressing me. His _gorgeous_ grey eyes were curious instead of angry, as they had been not a few moments earlier.  
>"J-just got here, actually." I muttered, breaking eye contact. "Heard something about runaways, though."<p>

"Don't worry about him, I doubt he's looking for you anyway." _Oh, you have no idea._ Steven smiled, "So, did Tecy give you the TM?" I nodded. "Good." He shoved his hands into his pockets, "I'll get out of your way, probably trying to train your pokemon, right?" Steven walked out of the cave, once he left the cavern became pitch black.

My pokemon and I trained in the darkness for an hour before Tecy came in, illuminating the room with Charmander's flash. "Yo, Kali! Are you here?"

"Over here, Tec-chan!" I called out, blinking hard to get my eyes adjusted to the light. My friend strolled over to me, fishing in her shopping bag. She handed me several super potions as well as several different kinds of items, still with their labels on: two antidotes; two paralyze heals; two awakenings; two burn heals; and two ice heals. "Thank you, Tec-child." I said, putting the status healers into my bag and using a super potion on Trouble and Treecko immediately. Their wounds were healed immediately and they looked refreshed. We battled pokemon the rest of the day and part of the night. Tecy crashed in the Pokemon Center, where as Trouble and I were wide awake, since we didn't fall asleep until two last night. We talked a little, and when I say 'talked' I mean 'exchanged insults', eventually we ran out of good insults and went to sleep.

I woke up to noises outside the room, the clock on the end table said that it was barely eight in the morning. I could hear faint whispers from the hallway and, as I crept closer to investigate, could see silhouettes of people on the other side of the door. Curious, I pressed my ear against the wood and listened.

"... You're _absolutely sure_ the runaways are on Dewford?" One voice asked.

"Yes."

"_Really_?"

"Yes!"

"_Really, _really?"

"... No." The other replied. "B-but I'm fairly sure! Why else would Russell send us here?"

"Idiot, he sent us here to get those two teenage girls who ran away. He sent teams of two to every town in Hoenn and we were just unlucky enough to get this dinky, pathetic, little island!" The first shouted. I pulled my head away immediately as if the wood was suddenly lava. _Oooooooh boy. That's not good_. I got up and went to shake Tecy awake. She groaned in protest but opened one eye.

"What is it?"

"Team Rocket's here. They found us." Tecy's eyes popped open and before you can say "just kidding" she flung herself from the bed and was rushing to get ready to leave.

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" She hissed, coming out of the bathroom, now wearing a purple T-shirt and blue jeans. She threw her pajamas into her bag and tried to zip the bag closed.

"I just found out now." I whispered, then pointed to the silhouettes under the door. Tecy followed my gaze, yanking the zipper shut and dropping down to put her tennis shoes on. She nodded slowly, getting her pokemon into their pokeballs. She slung her bag over her shoulder and I packed my own stuff.

"So, how are we supposed to get out of here, if they're right outside?" Tecy asked.

"Well, 'doy. We fight through them!" I laughed, holding up a readied fist. Tecy considered that and nodded.

"Okay, let's do it. Grab your stuff, we're getting out of here." She smiled. I got my pokemon and stuffed whatever I still had laying around into my bag and walked up to the door where Tecy was. She was leaning into the door, listening in on the conversation. She glanced up when I got to her. "They don't actually know we're here." Tecy whispered to me. "They're just here because they were assigned to the island."

"Yeah, I know." I whispered back. "Let's go take 'em down!" Tecy nodded and opened the door. On the other side, sure enough, two men wearing black hats, shirts and pants, with a big red 'R' printed on the front were standing there. One of them noticed us and promptly moved out of our way. I readied a punch, but Tecy grabbed my wrist and pulled me away. I gave her a confused look and then pouted once we reached the lobby, "Tec-chaaaan! I though we were gonna fight them!"

"First off, _don't_ look at me like that. It's really obnoxious. Second, Kali, if you attacked them then they would've known we were here. They didn't recognize us, so we're safe... For now." She relaxed slightly. "Let's find Captain Briney and get to Slateport. We need to deliver the goods to Captain Stern before we get into too much trouble." _Why does she have to be reasonable? Why can't she just want to punch Rocket jerks in the face? ... Oh, wait, that's right. She already has. Dang it._

We found Captain Briney sipping a cup of tea in the lobby; Peeko was perched on the PC. "Hey Captain." I greeted him.

He looked up at us and started to get up "You ready to go?" he asked with a grunt.

"Yep," Tecy and I answered in unison.

"Jinx," I laughed "You owe me a soda."

Tecy rolled her eyes at me. "Like I'll ever pay that off." I nudged her in the gut and followed the old sailor out to the dock.

**(A/N Tecy: Team Rocket followed us into Hoenn. Yay. Just means we have to dodge them; that can't be too hard, right? Well, Ash has been dodging Team Rocket since they showed up sooo... Yeah, not likely. But Kali and I at least have intelligence on our side.)**


	17. Chapter 8- Slateport

We sailed off to a beach and Captain Briney pulled the boat onto the sandy shore, unwilling to accept any help from Tecy or myself. "Aaaah, here you go, girls. Go take care of the Devon Goods." He said, motioning to the city above the beach. Tecy and I jumped out of the boat and started walking up to the town, battling a couple trainers before reaching the road. I started walking up to the city but Tecy grabbed my arm and pointed to the shore house only a short distance away. She gave me a grin, and I returned it with a nod. We rushed over to the beach house and went inside; a couple trainers were lounging around, along with a guy at the back, wiping down shot glasses. He caught sight of us and looked back to what he was doing as he spoke.

"Soda pop is 20 Poke each or you get a dozen free if you can beat all the trainers here." Tecy and I shrugged and walked up to one of the trainers: a woman with shoulder length blonde hair wearing a sleeveless turtleneck and skinny jeans.

"Boring battles aren't worth the time, so let's have an electrifying duel!" She offered, pulling out a single pokeball.

"Agreed." I nodded. Tecy stepped back. "Tec-chan, aren't you going to battle?"

"Sure, but she has one pokemon. It wouldn't be a fair battle if I joined in, so I'll be over here." Tecy replied, pointing to the other trainers in the seashore house.

"Okay, Tec-chan!" I turned back to the trainer I started a battle with.

"Go, Goldeen!"

"Go, Treecko!"

"Goldeen, use watersport!"

"Treecko, Leafblade!"

Goldeen blew bubbles that floated around the seashore house, popping and soaking everything nearby on impact. Treecko found it to be a bit annoying, but nothing else, it didn't _hurt_ him at all. My tree frog pokemon came running at the goldfish with his sword of leaves, slashing down at his opponent furiously. Goldeen was struck three times before she fainted.

"Well, that was quite exhilarating." The woman smiled. My trainer card _ding_ed as she brought her pokemon back and left the seashore house. I walked over to where Tecy was battling a sailor.

"How's it going?" I asked, watching the clash between mudkip and tentacool.

"Fine." Tecy deadpanned. "Your battle went fast."

"Yep. She was no match for the awesomeness of Prussia!" I cheered.

"Last I checked, you're Russia." Tecy corrected. "Havoc, mudshot!"

"Tentacool, wrap!"

I watched the battle a little longer. Havoc spat heavy amounts of mud on the jellyfish pokemon, making it hard to see what it was trying to wrap. Havoc jumped out of the way as the tentacool shot out its poisonous tentacles to capture him; instead, tentacool gripped a chair leg and pulled the folding chair towards himself, realizing too late his mistake. The folding chair collided with tentacool's head, knocking him out. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Alright... Wingull, go!" The sailor yelled, sending out the seagull pokemon. He pulled his tentacool back into its pokeball and ordered, "Wingull, wing attack!"

"Havoc, use take down!" Tecy instructed.

"I'm going to go battle someone else, okay, Tec-chan?" I asked. Tecy simply nodded in reply.

The only other trainer in the seashore house was a little kid. "I maybe little, but I won't cry if I lose!"

_Great. That's a guarantee he's going to cry._ "I should hope so. Go, Treecko!"

"Let's go, Marill!" The boy shouted, sending his pokemon out. Marill, like in the games, was a round, blue, mousey pokemon with a blue ball on the end of its tail. It was _freaking adorable_, but it was another trainer's pokemon, so I couldn't catch him.

"Treecko, Leafblade!"

"Marill, defense curl!"

Marill curled up into a ball as Treecko came at him with his leaf sword. Treecko hit the other pokemon five times before coming back, Marill was hurt pretty bad, but still had a _lot_ of energy to continue. My jaw dropped. _No way! Defense curl wasn't _that_ good in the games!_ The little kid grinned evilly and I frowned.

"Let's try that again, Treecko." My pokemon nodded and ran back into the fray.

"Marill, defense curl!"

Again, Marill curled up into a ball and again, Treecko came running with his leaf blade. Marill went down after four hits.

"Okaay..." The boy frowned but brought his first pokemon back. "Go, Azurill!" A pokemon that looked similar to Marill appeared, only she was much smaller with a tail that she could actually stand and bounce around on, and she was a lighter blue than Marill. I swallowed a squeal of delight at the adorable pokemon, having to remind myself that it was someone else's. "Azurill, tail whip!"

"Treecko, leaf blade!"

Azurill hopped off her tail and swung it around and around, spinning herself and whacking Treecko mercilessly with it. Treecko did his best to avoid the smaller pokemon, but he was still hit multiple times. Finally Azurill stopped, clearly dizzy from all the spinning. Treecko smirked and created a sword of leaves again and started slashing Azurill. Leaf blade, I noticed, didn't do as much to the pale blue pokemon as it had done to Marill. I wondered why that was, weren't they both water type? The attack hit five times, and, though much weaker than before, Azurill still had some energy left to battle.

"Azurill, tackle!"

"Treecko, absorb!"

Treecko attacked first; green bubbles of energy sprouted around Azurill and flowed like water to treecko. Treecko gained a little more energy whereas Azurill fell down, fainted.

"Nooo!" The boy cried, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" He picked up his fainted pokemon and ran out of the seashore house, crying the whole way. I winced.

"I... I feel kinda bad, now." Treecko muttered.

"Yeah. Especially because he said he _wouldn't_ cry." I nodded. I looked down at my Trainer card, to make sure the victory money was registered- it had, I guess I just didn't hear the- _ding_... _nevermind, there it went._

"What was that all about?" Tecy asked from right behind me. I squeaked in shock and spun around to see her. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"Ehe, it's ok." I replied, then whispered to Treecko, "Why didn't you say Tecy was behind me?"

"She told me to stay quiet." Treecko shrugged. "Can we get soda now?"

I nodded to my pokemon and we walked up to the guy standing behind the counter. He already had twenty four bottles of soda ready for us. Tecy and I took twelve and walked out and onto the beach. Tecy handed me one and I gave her a questioning look.

"Remember, I owe you a soda because of the jinx." She replied. I nodded and took the extra pop, shoving it into my bag with the other bottles of soda. We then went into Slateport, and I was surprised how empty the streets were, although it was 9:30 in the morning. Tecy and I noticed a large amount of Team Aqua grunts standing around in front of the Museum of Marine Biology. "It looks like we won't be able to get there yet." Tecy muttered. "I guess we should go to the shipyard." I gave her a flat look. "Yeah, okay. That was pretty obvious... Let's just go."

I led the way to the large warehouse and entered. A man standing over some blueprints to a boat was muttering to himself and scratching his head. "Hey." I called out. "Is Captain Stern here?" The man glanced up at us.

"No. Captain Stern is working at the Museum." The man replied. "But it doesn't open for another hour." _That explains why the Aqua Grunts are waiting outside._

"Okay, thanks." I said before leaving the warehouse. Tecy and I wandered around the city for a while. "Ugh. I'm so bored!" I cried out after about five minutes.

"We could try out the battle tent." Tecy offered, pointing to a tent with a pokeball sign in front, the words "Battle Factory" was written on it. "You know what the Battle Factory is, right?"

"Kinda..." I said, not wanting to look stupid and say 'no'.

"You go on a couple battles using the pokemon there and see how long of a battle streak you can hold."

"Mmm. Nah." I said, shaking my head. "The only pokemon I want to use are my own."

"Okay, then." Tecy shrugged and glanced at the stores, she stopped in front of one and smiled. I noticed she wasn't following me and walked back over to her, pouting. She simply pointed to the window and I looked: it had an array of different kinds of swim suits. I gave my friend a questioning look. "We could go swimming."

"But you have a fire-type pokemon with you." I reminded her.

"Charmander doesn't have to go swimming." Tecy shrugged, "He can sunbathe." I frowned. "Come on, Kali-_senpai_!"

"Okay then, Tec-chan!" I smiled, "We can go swimming." Tecy almost never calls me senpai, so it makes my day when she does.

"Yay." she breathed, referencing her favorite pony in _My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic._ We went inside the swimsuit store, I picked out a modest teal tankini and Tecy picked out a modest purple one-piece swimsuit that also had a skirt. We changed at the Pokemon Center- which was really close to the beach- and let our pokemon out. I wasn't surprised when Charmander opted to stay inside and watch TV. Treecko stayed as well, claiming that one of his favorite shows was on. We killed a couple hours playing on the beach and swimming. We finally came back to the Pokemon Center, changed back into our street clothes, and made our way to the Museum. The Aqua Grunts were no longer camping out, so we assumed the museum was open now, and we walked in. The receptionists were physically nervous about having criminals in the museum, but they still did their jobs. We paid the 50 poke fee and spent some time looking around before going upstairs. I found the scientist working some finishing touches on a miniature replica of a submarine.

"Hello, Captain Stern, I was sent to deliver these goods from the Devon Corporation." I greeted him, as well as explaining why we were talking to him.

"Oh, yes! Thank you." Captain Stern smiled as I held out the goods for him to take.

"Hold it right there!" Someone shouted from behind us. I pushed the suitcase with the goods inside to Captain Stern before facing the two pirates who face us. "Team Aqua needs those goods.

"Then you're going to have to battle us for them." Tecy said, stepping up. The Aqua grunts got their pokeballs ready but Tecy, apparently, had a different kind of battle in mind. One that included her using her fists. Tecy laid the two pirates out with a swift punch each to their temples.

"Awww, I wanted to punch someone, Tec-chan!" I pouted.

"I'll let you get the next one." Tecy promised, then turned to look at a husky guy wearing the Team Aqua logo on his black shirt and ripped jacket and jeans. He took one look at the two KO'd goons on the floor and then up at Tecy.

"I'm Archie, leader of Team Aqua. Judging by your outfits, I can guess that you aren't Team Magma. Although you attacked two of my grunts, I'll let you go this time. But mess with Team Aqua again and you won't be so lucky." The man said before walking back down the stairs. I couldn't help but laugh after he left. That guy was _totally_ scared of my little Tec-child!

"That was... Quite... impressive." Captain Stern said, setting the goods on the table next to him. "I'll send word to Mr. Stone that I have the goods here."

"Okay." Tecy nodded. "We'll grab the authorities on the way out to take care of the pirates."

"No, I'll take care of that myself." Captain Stern said, glancing down at the two sleeping goons on the floor. "I take it you're going to go see Mr. Stone right after this?"

"Mmm, probably not. We're just running the errand while we're on our Pokemon Journey." Tecy replied. I gave her a 'what about the EXP share' look and she replied with a shrug.

"You don't work for Devon Corporation?"

"Nope." Tecy shook her head. "We're just doing Mr. Stone a favor."

"I see. Well, good luck on your journey." Captain Stern nodded his farewell to us, we said goodbye and left the Museum.

**(A/N Tecy: More Team Aqua and more Karate. **

**I'm not intimidating in the least, but Archie's smart enough to know when it's best to cut losses. (spoilers) Plus waiting to steal the actual submarine is a lot smarter than trying to steal the parts and have his grunts try to put it together (end of spoilers).**

**Poor Kali, she really wants to punch someone.**

**And, lucky you guys, is the only website where I've written out the Seashore House battles. I may get to writing it on WattPad and dA (and by that I mean copy/pasting) but that may be a while.)**


	18. Chapter 9- Kidnapped

Tecy and I started to head to the Pokemon Center when Tecy stopped right in her tracks. I glanced back at her, she looked like she was seeing a ghost. I followed her gaze and it landed right on Russell, but now he was wearing Team Rocket gear. "So this is where you two ended up," He said then started walking toward us. Tecy and I stepped back, I grabbed Treecko's pokeball and Tecy readied for a punch. Russell motioned for several grunts to surround us. We could only watch them get closer to us. "Put it down, Theresa. You can't battle ten people at once."

"By myself, no. Probably not." Tecy admitted, glancing over at me, "But I'm not the only one who's going to battle."

"Surrender is your only option." Russell growled.

"That's a logical fallacy right there." Tecy corrected, "I have other options."

"Such as?"

"Screaming comes to mind." She replied, "We could battle it out with our pokemon. And you could also just walk away from this and let Kali and me just be normal pokemon trainers."

"That's _not_ going to happen." Russell scoffed, "Fine, if it's a pokemon battle you want, then it's a pokemon battle..."

"What's going on here?" A familiar voice asked. I looked past some of the rocket grunts to see Steven glaring at the criminals.

"Oh sh*t, it's the champ." One of the grunts whispered.

"Ganging up on women isn't very chivalrous." Steven commented, shaking his head and making 'tsk' sounds with his tongue. I couldn't help but smile. Steven made his way over to Tecy and me and frowned as he saw the logo written on their shirts. "I told you lot to go back to Kanto already."

"This isn't your concern, Steven." Russell replied. "Hand over the girls and we'll be out of Hoenn before you know it."

"That isn't his choice to make, Russell." Tecy told him, "Kali and I _won't_ be going to Kanto, not with Team Rocket."

"I hope one of you is going to explain what's going on after this." Steven muttered to us. Facing the Team Rocket grunts, he pulled out a pokeball. "Prepare yourselves for battle. Go, Skarmory!" A large steel bird pokemon came from the pokeball and cried with an angry screech. Russell sent out his Pikachu and the battle begun.

Tecy and I watched Steven's Skarmory wipe the floor with Russell's pikachu. I didn't notice until it was too late that a Team Rocket grunt had snuck behind me and grabbed me, pinning my arms to my sides and cupping a hand over my mouth. I bit down, a groan came from the grunt but he continued to drag me off. I kicked out at Tecy and missed completely. The grunt continued to drag me onto the beach and then onto a waiting yacht where I was thrown unceremoniously into a cell. "Stay there." My captor ordered me, slamming the cell door. _Yeah, like I could go anywhere._ I sat down on the concrete floor and moved my finger over the bumpy surface, connecting the dots to form pictures. After a couple minutes the cell door opened and I looked up to see Russell.

"You're one slippery girl, Kali." Russell said with a half-smile, opening the cell door and stepping inside, blocking the exit.

"I'm not slippery, I'm completely dry." I replied. Russell gave me a confused look then frowned.

"You're not in a position to be a smart a-." He growled, kicking my side. I gasped at the searing pain in my ribs. "We'll be in Johto in an hour. You'd better behave."

"Johto? What about Kanto?" I asked, favoring the side he kicked.

"What about Kanto?" Russell smirked, "Johto is where Team Rocket recruits train." He then stepped out of the cell, shutting the door behind him. "See you in an hour."

The throbbing in my side was settling down and I sat up, demanding, "Why do you want Tecy and me anyway? Why does it matter so much?" My questions were left unanswered as Russell walked away. I grumbled and looked for my bag: it was on the other side of the cell gate. _Of course it is._ I glanced around the little concrete cell I was in and exhaled. _Well, great. Now what?_ Having nothing better to do, I started singing some of my favorite Eurovision songs and then went onto my favorite songs from musicals.

"Land, ho!" Someone above me shouted. Russell then came back down into the jail and shoved the door open. I stared at it with anger.

"That thing was unlocked this whole time?!" I shouted.

"Oh, so you noticed." Russell grinned evilly. I frowned at him and made a vain attempt to kick him. He stepped off to the side and retaliated by kicking me in the gut, I fell backwards, hitting my head against the concrete floor. My head felt like someone had hit it with an axe, which did _not_ put me in a good mood. "Stupid girl, don't you realize that you've lost? Theresa will be joining you soon in the Team Rocket corps, like it or not."

"Why does it matter so much that Tecy and I are a part of Team Rocket anyway? Why do you care?" I demanded, rubbing the back of my head.

Russell glanced off to the side as if he was considering whether or not to answer my question. "It's for the best if you do join. When Team Rocket takes over the world, those who aren't members will..." He chuckled. "Well, they won't exist."

"That wasn't what I was asking. I asked why you cared that Tecy and I, specifically, were a part of Team Rocket."

"Both of you have previous knowledge of Pokemon, from your world. Team Rocket needs such knowledge in order to take control of the regions." Russell explained. "Also..." His expression drifted. "I have my reasons." He glanced over to me as I started to sit up and kicked me in the face, causing my nose to start bleeding and dirt getting into my eyes. I twisted back onto my knees, rubbing dirt, blood, and tears off my face. "Don't think you can fight me. Theresa's the martial artist, not you."

Despite crying from the pain in my nose and eyes I chuckled. "You're scared of Tecy, then?" Laughing hurt my sides. I stopped laughing.

"Why thank you." An all-too familiar voice piped up. I glanced up, forcing my eyes open to see Russell's dumbfounded expression as Tecy was standing behind him. Thankfully she waited a few moments for me to be able to watch before she started to kick his trash. First with a punch to the face and then several kicks to his head- I counted three in a row before she even let her leg down. Russell stumbled over by me and I found the perfect opportunity for some payback: once he was well within my reach, I moved into a better kicking position and my foot collided with his groin. My foot dropped as did Russell. Tecy watched him writhe in pain on the ground a little ways away from where I was. "Nice, Kali." She said with an approving nod, not even looking at me. "_Very_ nice."

"Thanks." My voice was back to normal and I wasn't crying anymore, plus it was easier to keep my eyes open now. Tecy gave me a look of disdain as she saw me.

"Wow. You look like you got hit by a water balloon full of blood and dirt. You okay?"

"Heh, I feel like I got hit by a train." I chuckled. Bad move, laughing hurt. Steven came in just then with my stuff, he looked over me once with shock.

"Arceus." He breathed. "We gotta get you to the Pokemon Center, and fast. Here." He walked over to me and picked me up. I let out a sharp cry, _dirty words that hurt!_ Steven apologized but didn't make any move to set me back down. I wasn't sure whether I was super tired of getting beaten up or just the lack of sleep from last night but I fell asleep pretty quickly.

I woke up in a hospital room, nothing hurt so I was probably on pain meds. I didn't sit up, I didn't feel like it. For some reason I felt completely lethargic. Probably pain meds. "How're you feeling?" Treecko asked, climbing onto the bed. He gave me a pitying look.

"Fine, actually. But I guess that's just medicine talking." I let out a long sigh. "How long was I asleep for?"

"Two hours." Treecko replied, kneeling down on the bed next to me. "We're all really worried about you. There was a lot of blood on your face."

"Yeah. I'm okay right now, so don't worry." I smiled at Treecko, hoping to reassure him. It seemed to work a little. "Where's Tecy and Steven?"

"Steven's beating up Team Rocket and doing everything he can to get them out of Hoenn, at least that's what he said. Tecy's probably shopping or training. I'm not sure which." Just then Tecy walked into the room.

"Oh, hey! You're awake!" She exclaimed. "How're you feeling?"

"Fine. Pain meds are working. Where'd you go, Tec-chan?"

"I went over to Devon Corp and told Mr. Stone that we got everything delivered." Tecy started digging through her bag and pulled out a device that I recognized as the EXP share. "This one's yours." She stuck it into my bag. "There." She set her bag on the ground and moved my bag before sitting down on a chair. "Any questions?"

"Where are we?"

"Rustboro Pokemon Center."

"The Pokemon center?"

"Yep. Apparently the Pokemon center is not only a hotel but it's also a hospital."

"Any idea how long I'm going to need to recover?"

"You can leave whenever. Russell didn't break any of your bones and the worst of your injuries was the bloody nose. Although your ribs will be killing you whenever you try to laugh."

"Okay, doc, how long would you prescribe?" Tecy gave me a flat look at that comment.

"Just because I take Karate with a bunch of doctors doesn't make me one." Tecy said with a huff. "But if you really want to know, probably until you don't need pain meds to function. That's just my suggestion." I got up and out of bed and walked over to my bag. "You want to leave _now_?"

"Yep." I replied. "We need to get to the third gym!"

**(A/N Tecy: The first kidnapping. Yay. **

**Russell isn't even pretending to be a nice guy anymore, not like he was doing a great job pretending that he was in the first place, but it's refreshing to know that he's holding nothing back. I guess I can say that because he's scared of my skillz and he hasn't kidnapped me... yet...)**


	19. Chapter 10- Secret Tunnel

"Right, well, that's in Mauville." Tecy said with a discouraging tone.

"Yeah, and?"

"And it's on the other side of Verdanturf Tunnel."

"Yeah, and?"

"And it's blocked off." Tecy continued.

"So? We can just go to Slateport and go the long way."

"We don't have a boat or a pokemon with surf." Tecy pointed out, "We left Capt. Brinely in Slateport."

I frowned. "You just want to make this difficult, don't you?" Tecy shrugged. "I have Steven's number, I could call him and ask for a ride to Mauville."

"No need to call me." Steven said, walking into the doorway. He seemed surprised that I was up already. "What are you doing up? Get back to bed."

"But Steven-senpai, I'm feeling better."

"That's just pain meds. Get back to bed. You'll do more harm if you stay up."

"But Tec-chan said I was OK to leave." I whined, pointing to my friend. She glanced between Steven and I twice before laughing nervously.

"I... I uh... I need to go train my pokemon..." She said and hurried to get her bag while Steven picked me up and set me back in the bed.

"Bu-but Tec-chan!" I pleaded, lower lip quivering. "Don't leave me by myself!"

"_Don't_ look at me like that!" Tecy protested with a frown, "Steven's still here and your pokemon will keep you company."

"But, Tec-_CHAN_!" Tecy ignored me and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Steven chuckled at my antics. "I'm _bored_!" I huffed folding my arms across my chest.

"Then go to sleep."

"Hah, that's funny. I just slept for two hours, my brain's not going to let me go back to sleep." I snorted.

"What are you going to do then?" Steven asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. I wracked my brain for ideas then remembered that I had brought my knitting.

"Steven would you be a dear and hand me my bag?" I asked cutely. He then handed it to me and I started to rummage through it searching for yarn and needles. eventually my hand brushed against the soft, thin yarn. I pulled out the dark blue yarn with golden size seven needles sticking out of it. I resumed knitting the scarf I was making before coming to camp.

"You're good." Steven said taking a good look at the foot of scarf. "Not that I know what bad knitting looks like, by any means."

"Want me to knit you something?" I asked cutely.

"Sure," Steven shrugged. We fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments before he asked, "Do you know what Team Rocket wants with you and Tecy?"

"I dunno, maybe they decided that we're good enough trainers so they wanted to recruit us." I explained with a shrug. "Russell didn't tell me what they were planning though."

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough," Steven said with a small sigh.

"I also have to get even with that evil scumbag Russell." I grinned evilly, thinking of how sweet revenge will be.

"Kali, he beat you up pretty bad." Steven deadpanned.

"So? He will forever regret the day he messed with me." I chuckled darkly. Steven rolled his eyes at me. "What happened while I kidnapped?" I asked.

"A lot, actually." Steven replied, "I finished battling Russell and sent his lot packing. I... er... Didn't even notice you were gone until Tecy mentioned it. We thought you went back to the Pokemon Center, but you weren't here. It wasn't until then that we realized you had been kidnapped. We followed the ship into the Johto region before boarding; we took out the rocket grunts, and found you. I brought Tecy and you here and I decided to" he coughed " 'chat' with Russell." I grinned evilly. "If he ever shows up in Hoenn again, I won't stop you from pummeling him."

"Yeah!" I shouted and a sharp pain erupted in my gut. I gasped and winced as the pain faded into a dull throb. It didn't hurt that much but it was still unbearable.

"Kali, are you okay?"

"Yeah." I groaned, "Pain meds wearing off." The throbbing started to escalate and I curled into a ball. I groaned as the pain got worse. _That didn't help at all._

Steven rolled me back onto the pillow before shouting for Nurse Joy.

"Get some rest, Kali." He instructed me. I really didn't have anything else to do than writhe in pain, so I complied.

"Ugh," I groaned after my long rest; my body felt heavy. My ears picked up the sound of someone sighing in relief. I looked up instantly to see Steven sitting in a chair holding my left hand in both of his. Steven's face was scrunched up in concern. I smiled sheepishly up at him.

"How are you feeling?" Steven asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"I'm fine, and stop doing that you'll give yourself wrinkles." I giggled, flicking his forehead playfully with my free hand. He chuckled lightly and his face relaxed noticeably.

"Am I interrupting?" Tecy asked as she stood in the doorway, the corners of her mouth curled up. It was clear she heard and saw everything.

"No," I said, maybe a little too quickly. Tecy raised an eyebrow playfully and I figured it'd be best to change the subject. "Can I get out of bed now?" I asked, looking at Steven.

"Well..." I looked up at Steven, eyes big and lower lip quivering. He glanced over at Tecy for help; she just shrugged. "Fine," He sighed in defeat.

"Yay!" I cheered and slowly got out of bed while motioning my two friends out of the room. When they left, I pulled on a white clasped full corset with a blood red full skirt that barely reached my knees. The skirt was slightly pleated. I shoved brown boots on my feet then completed the looked by slipping a pair of white goggles on top of my head. I slung my bag over my shoulder and went to join my friends.

"You look nice, Kali." Steven commented as I came into the hallway.

"Thanks!" I smiled. "Let's go," I grinned, grabbing their wrists and dragging them off. Steven's PokeNav rang as soon as we left the Pokemon Center.

"Hello," Steven answered, he talked for a few minutes before hanging up. "I gotta go now." Steven told us, I gave him a slight pout. "Elite four business. Be sure to call me if anything happens, especially if it has anything to do with Team Rocket."

"'Kay, bye." Tecy waved, while I have him giant puppy dog eyes.

"Kali, don't look at me like that." Steven protested, bringing his Skarmory from his pokeball and climbing onto it. "Skarmory, Ever Grande City!" The metal bird screeched in reply, spreading its bladed wings and propelling itself into the sky. I watched them fly out of sight before frowning at Tecy.

"Well, now what? How're we going to get anywhere without a ride?" I asked, Tecy just shrugged.

"We'll figure something out." After a moment she offered, "Why don't we check out Verdanturf tunnel? The tunnel may be cleared out." I nodded and led the way marching through the town of copper and bronze. A pretty nice combination, if I do say so myself.

Tecy and I strode through route 116 to Verdanturf tunnel and walked in. The pokemon there seemed to recognize us and scattered. Either that or it was because Treecko was out of his pokeball and was giving all of them the stinkeye. Tecy got to the rock wall that ended the tunnel first. She leaned against a stone on the wall and cried out as it gave way. I hid a small smile and helped my friend up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. My pride hurts more than I do right now." _That's... nice?_ "It looks like this leads somewhere." _No. Really?_ "Why don't we check it out?"

"Like we have a whole lot of options." I shrugged, stepping over the rubble and into the secret passage... Hey, that reminds me. "Secret Tunnel! Secret Tunnel!" Tecy laughed and joined in, "Through the mountain! Secret, secret, secret, secret TUNNEL!" "Hey! I remember the rest of the song!" I announced, Tecy and I bowed our heads, mocking shame, "And died." We went through the song a few more times before reaching the end of the tunnel- a dead end.

"Try pushing on the wall." Tecy offered.

"Just because it happened once doesn't mean it'll happen again."  
>"Humor me." I let out a small sigh and pressed on the stones in front of me, they felt more like Styrofoam and it crumbled easily. Before Tecy could say 'told you so' I was out of there.<p>

**(A/N Tecy: Another point A to point B chapter. And I'm a killjoy when it comes to logic. I'm not going to lie- it's a curse.**

**Steven probably could've given us a ride to Mauville instead of making us find that secret passage. Oh well, if he had then I'd have to re-write pretty much every chapter after this one.)**


	20. Chapter 11- Lavaridge

We hadn't been in the cave that long, but the sun still shone way bright when we came back outside. "Where are we?"

Tecy came out behind me and looked around. "This isn't Verdanturf, that's for certain." _No derp, Sherlock._ "Um..." Tecy pulled out her PokeNav and pressed the screen a few times. "According to the map on this thing, we're in Lavaridge."

"That's where the fourth gym is. Let's check it out!"

"We only have two badges- they won't let us in." Tecy reminded me. _Oh, yeah. Stupid rule._ "We'll have to go to Mauville and get THAT badge first."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked, grabbing Tecy's arm and pulling her along the streets of Lavaridge. The town definitely had a volcanic feel to it, all the large red rocks and it BURNING UP here. The sun must be at least 30 degrees hotter here than in Rustboro, and by '30 degrees hotter' I mean in _Celsius._

"Wait a second, Kali." Tecy panted. I wasn't pulling her really fast, so the sun must be getting to her too. "There's a hot spring. Let's check it out."

"Tecy. It's _burning up_ here. You really want to be in a _hot_ spring?" I asked, patience wearing thin. Heat does that, I guess.

"Actually, yes." Tecy replied. _Only you would_. "You can stick around the air conditioned Pokemon Center if you want, but I wanna go swim." Tecy just said the two magic words. I dragged her to the Pokemon Center where she changed into her swimsuit and hurried to the hot spring while I collapsed on a couch next to the AC, soaking up the cold air coming from it. Treecko sat down on the ground in front of it and Trouble came out of her pokeball.

"Aaaaaah. This feels so niiiiice." Trouble purred, standing straight up and getting blasted by the AC.

"Hey, I need some too!" Treecko protested, pushing Trouble off the air conditioner. "YOU weren't the one outside."

"I could feel how hot it was from my pokeball." Trouble huffed, "So, in a way, I was."

"Please don't argue. I'm too tired to break up a fight." I groaned, brushing the back of my hand to my forehead. It was cold and clammy- never a good sign.

"Sorry..." Treecko muttered, sitting back down. Trouble sat next to him. "Hey!" Treecko protested, a soft _thwap_ made it clear that my headache wasn't going to go away anytime soon.

"What was that for?" Trouble hissed.

"You just hit me!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes you did!"

"No, I didn't." _Thwap_ "NOW I did."

"Jerk!"

"Twerp!"

"Stoooooooop." I moaned, my brain hurt and I was _not_ in a good mood. They did stop- for a moment. After a couple seconds of silence I could hear them whisper insults to each other. _Ugh._ I tried to shut out the argument in vain for a minute or so before giving up and getting a room. I needed to nap and get rid of this headache, and also to get away from the arguing pokemon. Once in the room, I flopped on the bed and almost immediately went to sleep.

"Kali, are you feeling okay?" Tecy asked me sometime later. I moaned and rolled onto my side. "You're not dehydrated, are you?" After a moment I heard plastic rustle and a _cold_ plastic thing on my forehead. I opened my eyes to see Tecy, worried look on her face, pressing a cold water bottle to my forehead. I took the water from her hand and drank from it. Blood rushed to my head and my brain felt a lot clearer immediately after. "Any better?" I nodded and drained the water bottle.

"How was swimming?"

"Great, actually." Tecy smiled. Now with a better look, she was a _lot_ tanner than before. No, not tanner, redder.

"You didn't get sunburned, did you?"

"Ehhh... Just a little... Everywhere..." Tecy muttered sheepishly. "I'll be okay though. Burn Heals work on humans, so I'll be ok."

"What time is it?" I glanced over at the clock. "Wow, it's 5 already?"

"Yeah. It is." Tecy nodded. "We left Rustboro only a couple hours ago."

"Oh." I flopped back onto the bed. "I'm bored."

"Well, it's a lot cooler outside right now... And there's hardly any people at the hot spring."

"Ok... When does it close?"

"I don't think it does, considering that the gate to it is torn open." Tecy replied. "I may or may not have done that..."

"I wanna hear this."

"I'm kidding. According to the locals, it happened a while ago- they just never got around to fixing it."

"Still wanna hear it."

"Then you'd have to ask around 'cuz I dunno." Tecy replied with a shrug.

"You didn't ask?"

"I was kinda more worried about Charmander drowning than about a story at the time."

"What happened?"

"He jumped into the deep end and, being a fire pokemon, doesn't know how to swim." Tecy explained with a sigh. "Although, I probably shouldn't be calling him 'charmander' anymore..."

"Why's that?" I asked. Tecy simply pointed towards the other bed. A four-foot tall humanoid lizard pokemon with a horn on the back of his head and a flame on the end of his tail was looking at us intently. "Charmander evolved?" The pokemon previously a charmander, smiled and nodded. "Yay!"

"Yeah. Saved his own hide by evolving." Tecy nodded with a smirk. "Think he evolved into a water-type, given how he took to it afterward." Charman-er-Charm_eleon_ looked away, blushing slightly.

"Well, at least he won't be drowning anytime soon."

"Yeah and I'm not really excited to see it happen again." Tecy nodded. Charmeleon roared in agreement.

"I bet." I rolled off the bed and adjusted my shoes. "I'm heading out." I glanced over at Trouble, who was glaring at Treecko from across the room. "Wanna come along?"

Trouble raised an ear, looked over to me then shrugged. "Sure, why not?" She stood up, shot a glare at Treecko, and walked over to the door. I quickly changed into my swimming suit and then Trouble and I were off. We went behind the Pokemon Center and jumped into the hot spring, soaking in the hot water for a moment before I splashed Trouble. She frowned at me then splashed me back. I laughed and soon we were having an all out splash war. We stopped when Trouble finally got fed up. "That was fun." Trouble noted a few minutes after we stopped splashing each other.

"A lot of things are fun once you try it! You don't have to be such a grump all the time." I told her.

Trouble glanced down in the water. I guess she didn't realize how much of a killjoy she can be. "It's funny. I think I'm starting to like you as a Trainer." Right as she said that, a light shrouded over Trouble and she closed her eyes. The light became so bright that I had to look away. When the light dimmed, instead of an eevee in front of me, there was an Umbreon.

"Trouble! You evolved!" I squealed, giving her a big hug. She didn't struggle against it, I think she enjoyed it in fact. We swam around a few minutes longer before I noticed that Trouble was having a hard time staying afloat. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm okay, just really tired." She replied. Without a word, I picked her up and carried her inside. Trouble fell asleep in my arms before we got to our room, her black and gold ears fell to the sides of her head. _Trouble is so cute when she's sleeping!_ I set Trouble on the bed gently before grabbing a blanket and continued knitting on Snorlax's belly.

**(A/N Tecy: Haaaaaaaaaaate heat, in both of its meanings.**

**Trouble and Charmeleon evolved! Yay! Now Trouble's even scarier as an Umbreon! **

**Still ship TroubleXCharmeleon...**

**Also, Trouble evolved _not_ because of friendship but because of her maturity and also willingness to _try_ to get along with Kali. Just clearing that up.)**


	21. Chapter 12- To Mauville

I woke up to Tec-chan's backpack's zipper sounds. I didn't want to move, so I just laid there on Snorlax's belly for about a half-hour before realizing that Tecy may leave me behind to go training again. I got up and changed into black skinny jeans and a dark brown fitted t-shirt before going down to breakfast with Treecko and Snorlax. I didn't have the heart to wake Trouble up just yet, but I'll remember to grab her a couple berries for her when she does wake up.

"Kali, over here!" Tecy waved me over to where she and her pokemon were sitting. I walked over there with my pokemon, apparently she grabbed a couple things for us already. "Where's Trouble?"

"She's still sleeping. I didn't want to wake her up- we were up pretty late last night." I explained. "Oh, Tec-chan!" I exclaimed, remembering what happened last night. "Trouble evolved!"

"Really? Into Vaporeon?" She asked. I frowned and shook my head.

"Nope, Umbreon." Tecy mouthed 'oh'. "Don't you need a waterstone to evolve Eevee into Vaporeon?"

"Well, yeah..." Tecy rubbed the back of her neck. "But you never know. I mean you might be able to get Vaporeon if you become friendly with your eevee in a watery area." I gave Tecy a flat look. "It's possible! You get Leafeon and Glaceon by training them near certain stones."

"Yeah, but you use waterstones to get Vaporeon." I told her. "Just like in the games."

"Maybe not. Not everything in real life is like the games! Like potions have 20 uses instead of 1."

"You counted how many times you use a potion before it runs out?"

"I'm making a rough estimate." Tecy corrected, "I'm not THAT bored."

"'Cuz you got me around, huh?"

"Yeah." Tecy smiled and rolled her eyes. "Never a dull moment with you around, Kali-chan."

I didn't appreciate the sarcasm, or being called 'chan' when I'm the older one. "I'm Kali-_senpai, _not 'chan'. _Senpai._" Tecy just shrugged so I changed the subject. "Tec-chan, what are we going to do now?"

"We need to get to Mauville, that's where the third gym is." She replied. "Only problem is that there may be boulders in the way, and we don't have Rock Smash- and even if we did, we wouldn't be able to use it. Not without the third badge."

"Well, just means we get an adventure, right?"

"Yeah." Tecy finished her toast with Pecha jelly and she stood up. "If everyone's finished eating, we can head out now. Hopefully we can get out of Lavaridge before it reaches 120 degrees outside."

"Is that how hot it was yesterday?"

"Roughly."

"Yeowch. No wonder why we were sweating like pigs."

"_Tepigs_, and they don't sweat." I gave Tecy a flat look. "Yeah, okay, you don't care. Let's go, we need to head out before it gets too hot." I nodded and grabbed a couple extra Pecha berries before heading out.

"So, which way should we go? Up the volcano or down the mini cliffs?" Tecy asked like there was actually an option. I started hopping down the cliffs, finding a gold nugget on the way to the bottom. I waited for Tecy, who was much more timid about jumping down the road. Once she finally made it to the bottom with me we continued to Mauville. We ended up in a couple battles, but the trainers were no match for the incredible awesomeness of Prussia! The only time we _really_ had to stop was when we reached a couple boulders in the road. Tecy and I exchanged 'what now?' glances before I walked up to the boulders, finding hand and foot holds and climbed over the rocks. A familiar silver haired man stood on the other side with his Steelix. He looked up at me in horror as his pokemon smashed the rocks that I was on. I screamed, falling through the rubble. My fall wasn't far, but it was enough to knock the wind out of me. Steven was kneeling over me in a moment.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his grey eyes concerned. I glanced over to Tecy, who was biting her lip.

"I'm alright." I muttered after regaining my breath. "I just wish there was a mat or something for when I landed... ouch." I chuckled.

Tecy came over to us, walking through the rubble. "Hey, Steven. We're on our way to Mauville. Where are you headed?"

"I'm on my way through the desert, I'm going to catch a trapinch for a friend- and colleague- of mine."

"Who?" I asked, getting up and dusting myself off.

"Lance. He's a Dragon Trainer in Johto and he wants a Flygon."

"Then why get him a trapinch?"

"Trapinch evolves into Vibrava which evolves into Flygon." Tecy explained.

"Yeah. Exactly right." Steven nodded to Tecy.

"She's a know-it-all." I muttered to him. "Probably knows more about Pokemon than a Pokedex."

"Uh... No. That would be my brother."

"Who?" Steven asked.

"My brother." Tecy explained. "He's high-functioning asperger's syndrome, which basically means that he's extremely intelligent and acts like anyone dumber than he is is an idiot." Steven nodded, though he probably didn't know what Tecy was talking about. I had some idea- I've met her brother before and I have no regrets on saying that I don't like him. "At any rate, we need to head down to Mauville." Tecy grabbed my wrist and started pulling me away.

"Nice seeing you, Steven!" I called back in his direction. He waved good-bye before walking out of sight. I turned to the front and saw a house off to the side with someone sitting in front of it. "Tec-chan! Let's go talk to them!"

"That's a trainer." Tecy frowned.

"So? I wanna battle!"

"I'd kinda like to get to the gym though..."

"C'mon, Tec-chan! It's on the way." Then I added, "Plus our pokemon need a warm-up before battling the gym, right?"

"I suppose." Tecy sighed. She released my wrist and walked up to the house. The man there noticed us approaching.

"Are you girls going to take the Winstrate House challenge?" He asked us once we reached the porch. The man was bald with bushy eyebrows (but not as bushy as England's) and wearing a shirt with a bonsly on it as well as khakis.

"Yep!" I announced with a big smile. Tecy shrugged but also agreed.

"Alrighty!" He pulled out two pokeballs and threw them at the ground in front of him. "Go, Taillow! Go, Zigzagoon!"

"Let's trash these popsicles, Trouble!" I shouted, letting my newly evolved pokemon out of her pokeball. Thankfully she was awake now.

"Of course, Trainer." Trouble's voice was dangerous and, by the look of the Taillow's face, she looked dangerous as well.

"Let's go, Havoc!" Tecy shouted, throwing her Mudkip's pokeball into the fray. Havoc glanced over at Trouble then away. He croaked something and Tecy giggled. "Don't worry about Trouble, focus and taking out the Zigzagoon, okey?" Havoc croaked again, probably 'ok'. The Zigzagoon's expression seemed to relax, hearing that he wouldn't have to deal with my monster of an Umbreon. I chuckled at that.

"Okay, Trouble! Use Bite!" I ordered. Trouble launched into the fray without hesitation.

"Taillow, use Wing Attack! Zigzagoon, use Tackle!" The man shouted to his pokemon. I glanced over to Tecy, no word passed between her and her pokemon. They nodded in unison and Havoc jumped into the fray as well.

Trouble launched at Taillow, teeth baring and the lust for blood in her eyes. Taillow tried to fly into the air but Trouble had grabbed her and bit down hard. Taillow fainted from the one attack, but it looked like Trouble wanted to eat it. _Oh, Right! I almost forgot!_ "Trouble, come back!" She gave me a frown but came back anyway. I handed her the pecha berries that I grabbed at breakfast. Trouble started munching on the berries happily. Havoc and Zigzagoon were still fighting- Havoc spraying mud on Zigzagoon and then washing him off with water. Zigzagoon tried to endure the onslaught of mud and water but failed and fell to the ground, fainted.

"Wow. You two really did a number on me." The man said, calling his pokemon back to their pokeballs and going into the house. Our Trainer cards _ding_ed as he shouted "Hey, we've got some challengers!" Just as he went inside, a woman with greying hair came out of the house. She wore a red business-like dress with a matching rose-colored jacket over it.

"Oh, I see, there's two of you." She frowned, "I'm afraid I only have one pokemon."

Tecy and I exchanged looks. She then motioned to me with a smile. "You can take this battle, I don't mind."

"Alright! Thanks Tecy!" I smiled, taking a step forward. "Ready, Trouble?" My Umbreon looked up at me, her muzzle sticky from pecha berries; she wasn't done eating. "Oh, never mind." I pulled out Treecko's pokeball, "Let's go, Treecko!"

"Okay!" Treecko smiled, landing on the grass.

"Go, Roselia!" The woman shouted, sending out a flower pokemon. I could see Tecy biting her lip slightly.

"Something up?"

"Roselia is grass/poison while Treecko's grass type. He's at a disadvantage." Tecy explained. "I'd recommend sticking to normal type moves, but Roselia might have poison point."

"No biggy." I replied. "Hear that, Treecko?"

"Yeah, I heard. Want me to use pound?"

"Sure. And pound that sucker until she's sleeping."

"Um..." Tecy stifled a chuckle. "Roselia's a guy."

"Whatever." I shrugged, after a moment I asked. "How do you know that, anyway?"

"The way he glared at you just now." She chuckled.

"Ah."

Treecko came at Roselia, fist raised to pound. The Roselia held his red flower to block and came in with poison sting. Treecko jumped back, hand at his side. I guess that sting really hurt. Tecy frowned. "Poison is super effective against grass." She explained. _I think I know that, Tecy. I've played the games before._ I was about to order something else but Treecko was already pounding Roselia again. "Remember, you gave Treecko the order to 'pound that sucker until' _he's_ 'sleeping'. Treecko is still obeying that order."

"I remember." I frowned at Tecy.

"Okay..." She held her hands up in defense. "I'll shut up then."

Treecko pounded at Roselia again, and Roselia used poison sting again. Treecko came back, but he looked sick. I turned to Tecy. "Is he poisoned?" Tecy glanced at me and nodded. "Treecko, come back!" I looked over at Trouble. "Wanna take this?" She gave me a 'did you really just ask me that' look. "I'll take that as a 'yes'. Go on out there!" Trouble jumped to her paws and passed Treecko into the fray. "Trouble, use bite! Treecko, come over here." Treecko did so; his face seemed a little purple. _Yep, definitely poison._ I pulled out and antidote, Treecko opened his mouth, and I sprayed some of the medicine into his mouth. He swallowed and his face settled back into a healthy green color. "Better?"

"Much better!"

Trouble had finished biting the Roselia. "What now, Trainer?"

"I like it more when you call me Kali."

"Okay, _Kali_."

"Bite again." I told her. Trouble nodded and ran back into the battle. Roselia seemed nervous as Trouble charged at him, he held up a rose defensively but I could see him shaking.

"Poor guy, scared to death of a big, mean, Umbreon." Tecy smirked. I chuckled as well as Trouble bit down on the Roselia's arm. Roselia cried out in pain, Trouble bit down harder and Roselia used his other arm to beat down on her nose. Tecy let Charmeleon out of his pokeball, the large fire lizard sat down in the grass and watched the fight as well. He growled something to Tecy, to which she replied, "I let Kali take this battle, otherwise I would've let you fight."

"Okay, Trouble. Finish him off with swift!" I ordered her. Trouble nodded and little stars appeared in front of her that were then launched at Roselia. Roselia fell to the ground after that attack, Tecy sniggered. I gave her a curious look.

"Roselia touched a star..." Tecy replied with a smile. I gave Tecy a 'what?' look. "You know? Mind and Majesty? DarkHunter touched a star..." I still didn't get it and Tecy gave up. "Nevermind. Forget it."

"Well, I'm quite impressed." The woman said, our trainer cards _ding_ing again. She called her pokemon back and went inside, "These girls are very strong!" Trouble swelled with pride.

A girl with black hair and wearing a cute school uniform came out of the house. "You beat Mommy and Daddy? Wow, that must mean you're tough. But I'm tougher still!" She winked.

"Is that a challenge?" Trouble asked, tensing for battle.

"It sure sounded like it." I nodded, to Tecy. "Did that sound like a challenge to you?"

"Oooh, yeah!" Tecy grinned. "Ready, Charmeleon?" Charmeleon jumped to his feet and growled with a big grin on his face. "Alright then, head on in there!" Charmeleon ran into the battlefield right after Trouble.

"Go, Marill! Go, Numel!" The girl shouted, sending out the named pokemon.

"Charmeleon, use Mega Punch on Numel!" Tecy ordered.

"Trouble, use Thunder Fang on Marill!" I shouted. Tecy glanced over at me, eyebrow raised and a smile on her face. "What? Everyone knows electric's good against water. I don't need you to tell me all the match-ups."

"Just most of them." Tecy smirked. I gave her a flat look, but I knew she was right.

"C'mon..." The girl muttered, bringing Marill back into its pokeball. She pulled out another pokeball. "Go, Shroomish!" The mushroom pokemon came out of a pokeball, caught Charmeleon's grin and gaze. The little grass pokemon was _totally_ intimidated.

"Charmeleon, Fire wheel on Shroomish." Tecy ordered, "Then slash down on the burned areas- if the fire wheel doesn't make him faint." Charmeleon nodded and leaped out at the little mushroom pokemon, his arms on fire. Charmeleon spun around, releasing the fire in a wheel form at shroomish, catching him on fire. The little pokemon fainted. Trouble cleared her throat, reminding me that she still wanted to fight.

"Oh, right." I glanced to Numel, then to Tecy.

"Numel's Fire/Ground. Water would be the best against it, but Ground would also work."

"And I have neither." Trouble frowned.

"Would Dark work?"

"Assuming you mean dark type and not DarkHunter, yes, it would work, but it wouldn't be super effective." Tecy replied. I gave her a flat look.

"Of course I meant DarkHunter, Tecy. Sheesh." I chuckled.

"Oh, well, in that case, no, he wouldn't work." Tecy replied. I shook my head with a smile.

"Numel, use Magnitude!" The girl shouted, seeing that we were distracted. Tecy snapped back into attention, eyes on her pokemon.

"That's not a good thing, is it?" I asked.

"No. That's a _very_ 'not good' thing." Tecy replied.

The ground beneath us shook as Numel cried out. Charmeleon jumped in the air at the last moment and avoided the attack (causing Tecy to sigh in relief) Trouble; however, got hit full-on by the attack. She flew a few feet toward me but got up quickly and went back to her spot. Charmeleon growled something to her. "I'm fine." was her response, though I was surprised that there was no malice in her voice.

"Trouble, frustration!" I called after her.

"Frustration is a normal type move." Tecy muttered.

"Would it work?"

"Well... yeah, it would."

"Then it doesn't matter."

Trouble walked calmly up to Numel, her body glowing with a black light and a blood lust in her eyes (which is pretty creepy, even from where we were standing) and she released her frustrations on Numel. It wasn't as powerful as it was last time against Makuhita, but it was enough to make Numel faint.

"I... I lost?" The girl sniffled. Tecy and my trainer cards _ding_ed as the girl went inside, crying.

"I feel a little bad for the kid." Tecy muttered, holding her hand to her mouth.

"Well, she was the one who challenged us first." I replied, also feeling bad for making her cry.

An old lady with grey hair in a bun and wearing a blue and black Kimono came out of the house, she didn't seem happy. "You made my granddaughter cry! I'll spank you for that! Prepare to lose!" She sent out a Meditite and no other pokemon.

"It's your turn, Tec-chan!" I smiled. Tecy nodded and stepped forward.

"Want to take care of this, Charmeleon?" She asked. Charmeleon nodded. "Alrighty. Charmeleon, ember and slash at burns." The fire lizard jumped into battle.

"Meditite, detect!"

The Meditite protected himself from the first ember, but the second caught him on fire. Charmeleon slashed down at the blackest areas ruthlessly.

I noticed Trouble settle into the grass next to me, her head resting on her paws. Treecko also saw this and decided to use her as a chair. Trouble turned to face him, glared slightly, but made no move to force him off of her. "Aww, that's cute." I cooed at them. Trouble gave me a flat look and Treecko blushed slightly.

"I can't believe it." The old woman said, bringing her fainted Meditite back into his pokeball. Tecy's Trainer card _ding_ed. "You've beaten the Winstrate House challenge. For that, I'll give both of you an HM." The old woman stepped down from the porch and handed both of us a brick red HM. "The HM contains Rock Smash, but you'll need the Mauville gym badge to use it outside of battle." The old woman stepped back onto the porch before looking back to us. "Please, do visit sometime." Then she disappeared into the house.

"See, Tecy? This was worth our while." I smiled, nudging her in the side.

"Yes, actually it was." Tecy nodded, putting the HM in her bag. "Let's head down to Mauville now." I nodded, putting my pokemon back into their pokeballs and headed down the big hill into Mauville.

**(A/N Tecy: DarkHunter is a supervillain from one of my other (original) stories who tried to touch a star and almost burned to death because of it. It's an inside joke/slam to tell someone to touch a star, and swift throws stars at people... The reference was lost on my friend so I don't think anyone would get it anyway, but there it is. _I_ thought it was funny.**

**Anyway, LOTS of pokemon battles and also running into Steven. Aside from the lost inside joke, my friend was pretty happy with this chapter; even if she fell three feet or so off a rock.)**


End file.
